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®mfaers;itpofi?ortl)  Carolina 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


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This  book  must  not 
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Form  No.  471 


^' 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

GILBERT  T.  STEPHENSON 


The  Pastor  Beloved 


An  Appreciation 
of 

Dr.  Henry  Alfred  Brown 

Pastor 

of  the  First  Baptist  Church  of  Winston-Salem,  North  Carolina. 

forty  years  (1877-1917),  and  Pastor  Emeritus  of  all 

the  Baptist  Churches  of  Winston-Salem 

since  1917 


By 

Gilbert  T.  Stephenson 

RALEIGH,  N.  C» 


NASHVILLE,  TENNESSEE 
SUNDAY  SCHOOL  BOARD 

OF  THE 

SOUTHERN  BAPTIST  CONVENTION 


Copyright  1925, 

Sunday  School  Board 

Southern   Baptist  Convention 

Nashville,  Tenn. 


Printed  in  th«  United  States  of  America. 


To  the  Memory 

of 

Charles  Wingate  Scarborough 

Another  Pastor  Beloved 

"How  beautiful  upon  the  mountains  are  the  feet  of  him  that 
ningeth  good  tidings,  that  publisheth  peace,  that  btingeth  good 
tidings  of  good,  that  publisheth  salvation,  that  saith  unto  Zion, 
Thy  Cod  reignethl"  ISAIAH  52:  7. 


THE  PREFACE 

Dr.  Henry  A.  Brown  holds  such  a  distinguished  place 
in  the  admiration  and  affection  of  the  people  among 
whom  he  has  lived  and  labored  the  past  forty-seven 
years  that  a  record  of  his  life  and  work  should,  by  all 
means,  be  preserved,  if  for  no  other  reason,  that  it  may 
be  the  inspiration  of  future  generations. 

Soon  after  Dr.  Brown  retired  from  the  pastorate  of  the 
First  Baptist  Church  of  Winston-Salem,  North  Caro- 
lina, in  1917,  when  for  the  first  time  in  his  life  he  had 
the  prospect  of  some  leisure,  it  was  suggested  to  him  that 
he  prepare  an  autobiographic  sketch  and  an  interpreta- 
tion of  his  lifework.  The  suggestion  did  not  meet  with 
any  favor  from  him.  All  his  life  he  has  been  thinking 
of  others  and  magnifying  Another.  He  cannot  now 
magnify  himself  by  even  so  much  as  appearing  to  evalu- 
ate his  own  accomplishments. 

Later  the  Board  of  Deacons  of  his  church  asked  me 
to  prepare  an  appreciation  of  Dr.  Brown.  I  was  then 
a  member  of  Brown  Memorial  Baptist  Church  which 
was  named  for  him. 

This  appreciation  of  Dr.  Brown,  undertaken  as  a  la- 
bor of  love  and  pursued  intermittently  the  past  five 
years,  has  given  me  more  real  joy  than  any  work  of  the 
kind  I  have  ever  done.  It  has  brought  me  into  associa- 
tion with  the  older  residents  of  Winston-Salem,  who 
have  known  Dr.  Brown  since  he  came  to  the  village  of 
Winston  in  1877,  a  young  man  of  thirty-one  years.  It 
has  given  me  access  to  his  papers  and  to  his  splendid 
library.    Best  of  all,  it  has  brought  me  into  intimate  as- 

[7] 


Bociation  with  Dr.  Brown  himself.  The  last  alone  is 
a  privilege  any  young  man  may  well  covet.  With  him 
I  have  visited  the  scenes  of  his  childhood  and  youth  in 
Rockingham  County,  North  Carolina.  He  has  shown 
me  the  log  house  in  which  he  was  born.  He  has  taken 
me  to  the  spot  on  which  he  accepted  Christ  as  his  Sav- 
iour. 

Diffident  as  he  was  about  writing  an  autobiography, 
yet  he  has  been  ready  and  willing  at  all  times  to  help 
me  in  every  way  possible.  Not  only  has  he  turned  over 
to  me  such  of  his  files  as  I  needed  but  he  has,  from  time 
to  time,  answered  in  writing  questions  that  I  have  sub- 
mitted to  him.  It  will  be  noted  that  wherever  possible 
all  through  this  little  book  I  have  let  Dr.  Brown  speak 
for  himself.  I  have  quoted  freely  from  his  sermons, 
his  newspaper  articles,  and  from  the  memoranda  he  has 
prepared  for  me.  This,  I  think,  is  as  it  should  be.  One 
is  more  interested  in  what  Dr.  Brown,  himself,  says  than 
in  what  anybody  can  say  about  him  or  his  work. 

Nothing  that  partakes  of  the  nature  of  a  biography  of 
Dr.  Brown  would  be  complete  without  special  mention 
of  the  Right  Reverend  Edward  Rondthaler,  Bishop  of 
the  Southern  Province  of  the  Moravian  Church.  Fortu- 
nate indeed  are  we  to  have  an  introduction  to  this  ap- 
preciation of  Dr.  Brown  from  the  pen  of  Bishop  Rond- 
thaler. They  both  as  young  men  came  to  Winston- 
Salem  in  the  fall  of  1877,  Bishop  Rondthaler  a  few 
weeks  ahead  of  Dr.  Brown.  From  that  day  to  this 
they  have  been  fast  and  unfailing  friends.  Throughout 
the  earlier  days,  when  there  was  not  always  the  har- 
mony between  denominations  that  now  exists,  nothing 
ever  arose  to  mar  the  friendship  of  one,  the  pastor  of 
the  strong  and  long-established  Moravian  Church  in 
Salem,  and  the  other,  the  pastor  of  the  weak  and  re- 

[8] 


cently  established  Baptist  Church  in  Winston.  On  the 
occasion  of  the  thirtieth  anniversary  of  their  work  in 
Winston-Salem,  Bishop  Rondthaler,  speaking  of  the 
friendship  between  himself  and  Dr.  Brown,  said,  '^And 
then  we  like  each  other  because  we  have  never  meddled 
with  each  other.  Sometimes  we  will  not  see  each  other 
for  a  month,  because  we  do  not  pass  each  other's  way. 
I  have  never  written  him  a  letter  of  advice  during  these 
thirty  years,  and  he  has  never  written  me  a  letter  of  ad- 
vice in  this  long  period  of  time.  We  do  not  meddle, 
especially  into  matters  of  denominations.  In  the  course 
of  these  thirty  years,  maybe,  half  a  dozen  of  his  people 
have  joined  me,  half  a  dozen  of  mine  have  joined  him. 
When  anybody  has  gone  under  these  circumstances  we 
have  given  him  a  kind  letter  and  an  affectionate  God- 
speed between  us.  It  made  no  difference  between  us; 
arid  when  our  churches  saw  it  made  no  difference  be- 
tween us,  they  concluded  that  it  made  no  difference  be- 
tween them  either.  So  we  have  gone  on  with  the  churches 
just  the  same."  Speaking  of  his  friendship  for  Bishop 
Rondthaler,  Dr.  Brown,  with  a  touch  of  humor  so  char- 
acteristic of  him,  says,  'The  good  Bishop  and  I  have 
been  bosom  friends  through  all  the  long  years  of  my  stay 
in  this  city.  We  have  taken  all  sorts  of  friendly  privi- 
leges with  each  other.  One  time  I  saw  the  Bishop  march- 
ing the  street  like  he  was  going  to  a  fire.  I  held  up  my 
Aands  and  halted  him  and  said,  'Stop  and  breathe  a  lit- 
tle while.  Another  day  is  coming  and  there  will  be  thou- 
sands of  things  to  do  after  you  are  dead.  You  are  burn- 
ing your  candle  out  too  fast.  Let  us  make  haste  slowly.' 
He  smiled  and  went  on  his  way,  and  I  said  to  myself, 
'He  is  the  captain  of  the  fast-walking  brigade.'  "  It  is 
a  distinct  satisfaction  to  be  able,  here  and  there,  to  quote 
Bishop  Rondthaler,  for  he,  perhaps,  better  than   any 


[9] 


other  man  knows  what  it  is  that  has  given  Dr.  Brown 
such  a  distinction  among  the  men  of  his  generation. 

For  the  title,  'The  Pastor  Beloved,"  I  am  indebted  to 
Dr.  Jesse  B.  Weatherspoon,  who  was  Dr.  Brown's  imme- 
diate successor  as  pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  of 
Winston-Salem.  No  apter  phrase  to  describe  Dr.  Brown 
could  be  found. 

If  this  little  book  shall  have  any  lasting  interest  or 
value  outside  the  circles  of  his  family  and  friends,  it 
will  be  because  it  illustrates  the  worth  and  influence  of 
a  simple  life  of  piety  in  an  age  of  turmoil.  Dr.  Brown 
has  hved  among  men  and  been  interested  in  the  temporal 
as  well  as  the  spiritual  affairs  of  men,  yet  he  has  re- 
mained as  pure  and  unspotted  from  the  world  as  any 
saint  of  former  times  who  cloistered  himself  apart  from 
the  world.  What  Dr.  Brown  has  done  others  can  do. 
Herein  is  the  inspiration  of  his  life. 

Then,  again,  there  may  be  in  a  study  of  the  life  and 
character  of  this  minister  of  the  gospel,  who  has  been  in 
the  service  of  his  Master  over  half  a  century,  something 
of  practical  value  to  the  young  minister,  who  is  con- 
cerned about  making  his  life  count  for  the  most  in  the 
ministry.  With  this  in  mind  particularly,  I  have  in- 
cluded the  chapter,  'The  Elder  Brother,"  which  con- 
tains Dr.  Brown's  advice  to  young  ministers  drawn  from 
his  own  experience.  The  example  of  Dr.  Brown  richly 
deserves  emulation.  If  the  world  had  more  preachers, 
more  pastors,  and  more  men  like  him,  the  kingdom  of 
God  would  be  nearer  at  hand. 

I  wish  it  were  possible  to  make  public  acknowledg- 
ment of  all  the  assistance  I  have  received.  I  have  al- 
ready mentioned  Bishop  Rondthaler  and  Dr.  Weather- 
spoon.  In  addition  to  these  I  must  make  special  men- 
tion of  Miss  Carrie  R.  Jones,  one  of  the  few  surviving 
members  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  of  Winston-Salem 

[10]  .         . 


when  Dr.  Brown  became  pastor  in  1877,  of  Dr.  D.  Clay 
Lilly,  for  a  long  time  pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Winston-Salem,  of  Captain  F.  M.  Hamlin,  of 
Danville,  Va.,  Dr.  Brown's  leader  in  the  days  of  the 
Confederacy,  of  Dr.  W.  B.  Royall,  Dr.  Brown's  teacher 
and  friend  at  Wake  Forest  College,  and  of  the  members 
of  the  Board  of  Deacons  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  of 
Winston-Salem.  All  these  and  many  others  have  shared 
my  feeling  that  it  is  a  privilege  to  have  any  part  what- 
ever in  preserving  a  record  of  the  lifework  of  this  man 
of  God.  To  them  is  due  the  credit  for  whatever  is  of 
interest  or  value  in  this  book.  I  am  but  the  recorder 
of  their  interpretation  of  this  noble  life.  As  Calvin  says 
in  his  dedicatory  letter  to  his  Commentary  on  Romans, 
the  whole  charge  of  an  interpreter  is  "to  show  forth  the 
mind  of  the  writer  whom  he  hath  taken  upon  himself  to 
expound."  If  we  have  to  any  degree  shown  forth  the 
mind  and  heart  of  Dr.  Brown,  then  we  are  grateful  for 
the  opportunity  to  be  his  interpreters. 

GILBERT  T.  STEPHENSON. 

Raleigh,  N.  C. 
May  1,  1925. 


[11] 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 
Dr.  Henry  A.  Brown  at  the  age  of  70. Frontispiece 

Julia  Cain  Brown 16 

Brown  Memorial  Baptist  Church 74 

Baptist  Church  in  Winston,  in  1877 88 

Dr.  Henry  A  Brown  and  Bishop  Edward 

Rondthaler 110 


[13] 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 
Preface  7 

Introduction  by  Bishop  Edward  Rondthaler  ...  17 

Chapter  I — The  Pastor  Beloved 19 

Chapter  II—The  Simple  Life 32 

Chapter  Ill—The  Wise  Leader 72 

Chapter  IV — The  Effective  Preacher 85 

Chapter  V— The  Elder  Brother 99 

Chapter  VI— The  Gentle  Shepherd 110 

Chapter  VII— The  Faithful  Witness 120 


116] 


1854 


JULIA  CAIN  BROWN 


1914 


"The  woman  with  the  golden  hair  who  was  destined 
to  be  my  companion  for  life,  the  mother  of  my  children, 
the  sharer  of  my  joys  and  sorrows,  the  inspiration  of  my 
life,  the  one  on  whom  I  have  been  more  dependent  than 
on  any  other  for  whatever  of  success  and  happiness  has 
come  to  me." — H,  A.  Brown. 


INTRODUCTION 

The  esteemed  writer  of  this  correct  and  beautiful  trib- 
ute to  Dr.  Brown  and  to  his  work  has  asked  me  to  fur- 
nish a  few  lines  of  introduction  to  a  book  which,  we  trust, 
will  be  an  inspiration  and  help  to  many  a  young  pastor 
as  well  as  to  many  another  reader  who  desires  simply, 
lovingly  and  efficiently  to  follow  Jesus  Christ  in  daily 
life. 

Dr.  Brown  and  I  have  known  each  other  intimately 
for  nearly  fifty  years  and  walked  side  by  side  amid  the 
varied  and  often  difficult  duties  of  a  happy  Christian 
ministry. 

Our  relations  to  each  other  may,  perhaps,  best  be  ex- 
pressed by  a  simple  compact  between  us:  Whichever  of 
us  is  called  first  to  cross  the  river  will,  if  possible,  have 
the  other  by  his  side  to  bid  him  Godspeed,  in  the  sure 
hope  of  meeting  some  day  and  walking  with  each  other 
beside  the  River  of  the  Water  of  Life  under  the  trees  of 
the  heavenly  Eden. 

Edward  Rondthaler. 


[17] 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

'^As  in  water  face  ajiswereth  to  face,  so  the  heart  of  man  to 
man."  Proverbs  xxvii:  19. 

Beloved  By  All 

On  the  occasion  of  Dr.  Brown's  retirement  from  the 
pastorate  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  of  Winston-Salem, 
North  Carolina,  the  second  Sunday  in  December,  1917, 
after  a  continuous  service  of  forty  years,  the  IVinston- 
Salem  Journal  paid  the  following  editorial  tribute  to  him, 
v/hich  expresses  the  feeling  of  the  people  of  a  city  of 
over  60,000  souls,  without  regard  to  creed  or  color,  to- 
wards the  one  man  among  them  whom  they  would  name 
without  hesitation  their  pastor  beloved: 

"The  tremendous  outpouring  of  people  at  the  First 
Baptist  Church  last  Sunday  afternoon  to  pay  tribute  to 
a  great  life  that  has  been  spending  itself  in  our  midst 
for  the  last  forty  years  was  as  much  of  an  honor  to 
Winston-Salem  as  to  the  retiring  pastor  of  the  First 
Baptist  Church  in  whose  honor  the  meeting  was  held. 

'It  was  a  magnificent  thing  for  the  city  to  do — as 
beautiful  as  it  was  unusual.  Seldom  indeed  has  such  a 
spirit  of  appreciation  been  manifested  by  the  people  of 
any  community.  The  world  is  ever  ready  to  lay  flowers 
on  the  graves  of  its  dead  but  seldom  has  a  wreath  for 
the  living. 

"Sometimes  it  does.  Happily  for  the  world  and  all 
who  live  in  it,  sometimes  it  does.  Winston-Salem  brought 

[19] 


20  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

all  of  its  flowers  Sunday  and  banked  them  high  at  the 
altar  of  a  life — a  life  that  for  forty  years,  without  count- 
ing the  cost,  has  poured  itself  out  in  service  to  others. 

''If  we  had  not  known  before,  we  would  know  now — 
all  of  us  would  know — from  beautiful  experience  that 
he  who  would  save  his  life  must  lose  it  in  service  to 
others.  It  has  been  demonstrated  in  our  very  midst. 
We  have  seen  with  our  ov/n  eyes  what  it  means  to  lose 
one's  life  and  yet  save  it. 

"Dr.  Brown  is  one  of  the  rich  men  of  the  earth.  Mil- 
lions in  gold  would  not  purchase  his  future — yea,  all  the 
gold  that  was  ever  milled  could  not  buy  his  future.  It 
consists  of  friends  and  a  life.  It  has  been  said  of  him 
that  there  is  not  a  man  or  a  woman  or  boy  or  girl  or 
dog  or  cat  in  all  the  city  that  does  not  know  and  love 
Dr.  Brown. 

"This  is  something  that  money  cannot  buy.  This  is 
the  essence  of  the  life  that  counts.  In  the  long  run  it 
is  all  that  does  count.  For  what  will  it  profit  a  man  if 
he  gain  the  whole  world  and  lose  that? 

"What  does  it  amount  to?  Where  is  the  reward?  For- 
tunately for  Dr.  Brown,  he  has  lived  to  reap  it.  Many, 
indeed  most,  men  have  to  wait  until  they  reach  the 
other  side  to  experience  what  he  must  be  experiencing  to- 
day. He  has  come  face  to  face  with  the  most  welcome 
opportunity  a  true  man  ever  found  in  this  world — an 
opportunity  to  render  the  more  perfect  service. 

"As  pastor  emeritus  of  all  the  Baptist  churches  of  the 
city,  he  can  now  touch  closely  the  lives  of  thousands 
who  love  and  respect  him.  It  is  given  to  him  to  render 
the  fullest  service  possible  to  his  generation.  That  is 
his  reward. 

"Surely,  there  could  be  no  more  beautiful  climax,  no 
more  inspiring  zenith,  than  this  to  such  a  life  as  Dr. 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  21 

Brown  has  given  to  this  community — a  life  to  which  the 
highest  tribute  that  can  be  paid  is  that  it  has  been  so 
busy  thinking  of  others  that  it  has  not  thought  of  itself." 

Beloved  By  the  Members  of  His  Own  Congregation 

When  Dr.  Brown  retired  as  pastor  of  the  First  Bap- 
tist Church  of  Winston-Salem  the  members  of  his 
church  adopted  fitting  resolutions  in  which  they  said: 

''As  pastor,  we  have  never  known  your  equal;  as 
preacher,  you  have  expounded  the  full  gospel,  sound  to 
the  core;  as  a  citizen,  you  have  rendered  unto  Caesar  the 
things  that  are  Caesar's;  as  a  Christian,  you  have  of- 
fered an  acceptable  sacrifice  and  have  rendered  unto 
God  a  full  service;  socially,  you  have  uplifted  mankind, 
accepting,  as  you  have,  the  hospitality  of  the  humble 
as  well  as  the  exalted,  rejoicing  at  the  marriage  feast 
and  experiencing  and  expressing  deep  sorrow  at  the  open 
grave." 

Beloved  By  Members  of  Other  Denominations 

The  second  Sunday  in  December  of  each  of  the  last 
twenty  years  or  more  of  Dr.  Brown's  active  pastorate 
was  celebrated  by  the  Christians  of  the  city  as  an  anni- 
versary occasion.  Representatives  of  other  denomina- 
tions participated  in  the  services.  Bishop  Rondthaler 
invariably  brought  or  sent  a  message  of  congratulation 
and  good  will  from  which  quotation  will  be  made  as  we 
go  along.  Dr.  D.  Clay  Lilly,  many  years  pastor  of  the 
First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Winston-Salem,  says  of 
Dr.  Brown,  ''His  broad  and  fraternal  attitude  to  his 
brethren  of  other  churches  is  in  a  large  way  the  cause  of 
the  remarkable  spirit  of  unity  which  characterizes  the 
churches  of  Winston-Salem." 


22  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

In  1907,  a  reception  at  Salem  College  was  given  in 
honor  of  Bishop  and  Mrs.  Rondthaler,  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Brown  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Henry  Fries  in  celebration  of 
the  completion  by  each  of  them  of  thirty  years  of  defi- 
nite Christian  service  in  Winston-Salem.  To  this  re- 
ception the  people  of  the  city  thronged  to  pay  tribute 
to  these  three  remarkable  Christians  and  their  wives — 
two  of  them  ministers  of  the  gospel  and  one  a  business 
man.  All  three  of  them  are  still  living.  It  is  a  coinci- 
dence, too,  that  to  each  of  them  a  memorial  church  has 
already  been  established — Rondthaler  Memorial,  the  re- 
cent large  addition  to  the  Home  Moravian  Church, 
Winston-Salem,  to  the  Bishop;  Brown  Memorial  Baptist 
Church,  to  Dr.  Brown,  and  Fries  Memorial  Moravian 
Church,  to  Mr.  Fries. 

Beloved  By  Baptists  of  Other  Churches 
In  1909,  the  name  of  Broad  Street  Baptist  Church  in 
Winston-Salem  was  changed  to  Brown  Memorial  in 
honor  of  Dr.  Brown.  This  church  had  been  organized 
in  1886  as  a  mission  of  the  First  Baptist  Church.  It  is 
now  one  of  the  most  active  and  progressive  Baptist 
churches  in  North  Carolina. 

In  1917,  as  soon  as  Dr.  Brown  resigned  his  active  pas- 
torate, he  was  immediately  and  unanimously  elected 
pastor  emeritus  of  all  the  Baptist  churches  of  the  city, 
each  of  them  eagerl}^  contributing  to  his  salary — modest, 
to  be  sure,  but  all  that  he  would  accept. 

Beloved  Without  Regard  to  Age,  Color,  Creed  or  Con- 
dition 
In  the  little  paper  published  by  the  pupils  of  the  high 
school  of  Winston-Salem  I  found  the  following  essay  by 
a  tenth  grade  girl: 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  23 

''Girls!  if  anybody  should  ask  you  who  was  the  most 
beloved  man  you  had  ever  heard  of,  whom  would  you 
say?"  asked  Peggy  Hastings  of  a  crowd  of  girls  talking 
out  in  front  of  the  dear  old  Winston  High  School. 

''Why,  Dr.  Brown!  Who  would  dare  to  say  anyone 
else?"  chorused  all  the  girls. 

"That  is  just  exactly  what  I  told  Miss  Mary  when 
she  asked  us  in  English  class  this  morning,"  said  Peggy. 
"Anyone  in  this  community  would  agree  with  us,  but  I 
had  never  before  stopped  to  think  why  it  is  true.  Why 
would  you  say  so,  Nancy?" 

"Well,  Peggy,  of  course,  I  am  only  a  girl  of  sixteen,  but 
he  has  been  the  pastor  of  our  church  for  forty  years  and 
everyone  in  our  congregation  agrees  that  he  has  never 
heard  or  heard  of  an  unkind  word  uttered  by  the  lips  of 
this  dear  old  man.  If  you  meet  him  on  the  street  he  al- 
ways has  something  sweet  and  kind  to  say  to  you.  If 
a  marriage  takes  place,  no  matter  w^hat  denomination, 
Dr.  Brown  always  helps  in  the  wedding.  Why,  the 
young  people  of  Winston  wouldn't  feel  as  if  they  were 
married  unless  he  were  there.  And  there's  that  old  adage, 
'A  friend  in  need  is  a  friend  indeed.'  Has  any  girl  ever 
heard  of  anybody  being  in  trouble  without  Dr.  Brown 
being  there  to  comfort  and  console  him?  If  you  are  in 
doubt  about  a  thing  as  to  whether  it  is  right  or  wrong 
to  whom  is  the  first  person  you  think  of  going?  Always, 
Dr.  Brown.  Pie  is  loved  by  every  man,  woman  and 
child  in  our  city,  and  throughout  the  state  wherever  he 
is  known.  Oh!  that  our  community  were  made  up  of 
characters  such  as  this.  How  much  better  we  all  would 
be  to  live  our  religion  day  by  day." 

Among  the  papers  of  an  old  colored  servant,  along 
with  her  insurance  policy  and  other  papers  that  she  re- 
garded as  valuable,  I  found  a  clipping  yellow  with  age 


24  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

containing  an  article  by  Dr.  Brown  that  may  have  been 
a  source  of  comfort  to  the  soul  of  this  old  colored  woman. 

"The  thorn  in  the  flesh,  in  the  Christian  life,  is  a  w^ll- 
nigh  universal  experience.  We  need  not  think  that  Paul 
had  a  monopoly  on  the  ^thorn  business.'  We  do  not 
know  what  his  thorn  in  the  flesh  was.  He  was  not  suffi- 
ciently explicit  in  his  statements  for  us  to  reach  definite 
and  certain  conclusions  in  his  case.  Many  commentators 
have  spent  much  time  in  trying  to  make  it  plain  to  the 
average  man  but  after  we  have  waded  through  all  their 
theories  and  explanations  and  have  come  out  on  the 
other  side,  we  have  the  mists  of  uncertainty  hanging 
about  our  eyelids  still.  Perhaps  it  would  be  an  easier 
task  for  us  to  locate  our  own  thorns  than  to  maintain  a 
fruitless  search  through  the  years  for  Paul's  thorns.  In 
our  own  cases  we  may  not  be  far  wrong  in  saying  that 
there  is  a  something  within  us  that  puts  a  limitation  on 
our  love,  service  and  enjoyment  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 
This  something  may  be  some  unloving  deed  which  we 
have  done,  the  memory  of  which  haunts  us  by  day  and 
by  night  and  w^hich  we  would  fain  forget  and  cannot,  or 
it  may  be  some  selfish,  unkind  word  we  have  spoken  and 
which  has  opened  deep  wounds  in  the  heart  of  another 
and  which  we  would  bind  up  but  cannot.  David  said: 
'My  sin  is  ever  before  me.'  It  would  not  down  at  his 
bidding.  Sins  may  be  forgiven,  but  often  they  cannot  be 
forgotten  by  those  who  have  committed  them.  You  may 
cut  a  deep  gash  in  a  growing  tree  and  the  wound  may 
bleed  and  heal  but  the  scar  will  remain  after  many  years 
have  passed. 

''We  need  not  think  that  our  thorns  are  always  given 
to  us  lest  we  should  be  exalted  through  the  abundance 
of  the  revelation  given  to  us.  There  is  many  a  thorn  in 
our  hearts  that  has  no  connection  with  any  special  reve- 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  25 

lation.  Many  of  our  thorns  are  of  our  own  planting. 
When  some  physical  ailment  seizes  us  and  we  are  laid 
aside  for  weeks  from  our  loved  employ,  we  are  apt  to 
say  it  was  a  calamity — a  thorn  in  the  flesh.  Thorns  have 
their  mission  in  life  as  well  as  roses.  The  Psalmist  said, 
'Before  I  was  afflicted  I  went  astray,  but  since  I  have 
kept  thy  word.'  Physical  pain  may  have  a  corrective 
influence  on  our  lives.  Afflictions,  though  they  seem  se- 
vere, are  oft  in  mercy  sent.  The  bird  with  the  broken 
wing  may  utter  the  sweetest  notes.  And  the  flowers  that 
are  crushed  may  send  forth  their  most  delightful  fra- 
grance. Baxter  and  Spurgeon  were  great  physical  suf- 
ferers, but  their  sermons  fell  on  their  hearers  like  the 
balm  of  Gilead. 

"And  when  our  day's  work  is  over  and  w^e  are  tired  of 
waiting  and  sit  in  the  shadow  of  the  river  and  listen  for 
the  sound  of  the  boatman's  oar  and  feel  that  in  all  that 
is  going  on  we  can  have  no  part,  we  may  console  our- 
selves that  this  waiting  is  the  finishing  touch  in  the  prep- 
aration to  be  made  before  we  appear  at  the  marriage 
supper  of  the  Lamb.  And  whatever  may  be  our  thorn  in 
the  flesh,  we  m.ay  rest  assured  that  the  grace  of  God  will 
be  sufficient  for  us." 

In  1918  a  vicious  assault  was  alleged  to  have  been 
made  by  a  colored  man  upon  a  white  Vv^oman  in  Winston- 
Salem.  The  man  was  caught  and  lodged  in  the  city  jail. 
A  wild  and  angry  mob,  fretted  into  frenzy,  gathered 
around  the  city  jail,  determined  to  lay  hands  upon  and 
lynch  the  man.  Shots  were  fired  by  the  crowd  and  into 
the  crowd.  Innocent  bystanders — children — were  killed. 
The  whole  city,  it  seemed,  had  gone  mad.  The  authori- 
ties were  helpless.  In  the  midst  of  the  wildest  excite- 
ment the  mayor  of  the  city  sent  for  Dr.  Brown.  Stand- 
ing in  the  midst  of  the  mob  this  aged  man  of  God,  with- 


26  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

out  a  tremor  of  fear,  along  with  other  leading  men  of 
the  city,  pleaded  with  his  people  to  refrain  from  violence 
and  let  the  law  take  its  com'se.  Slowly  the  excitement 
subsided  and  the  lynching  was  averted.  I  relate  this, 
not  for  the  purpose  of  showing  the  effect  upon  the  mob 
of  Dr.  Brown's  presence,  but  to  show  that  this  pastor 
beloved  was  one  of  the  men  to  whom  the  city  turned 
in  its  hour  of  distress  and  that  he  faced  the  crowd,  angry 
and  crazed  though  it  was,  without  a  tremor. 

In  the  fall  of  1921  the  city  launched  a  campaign  to 
raise  $100,000  to  secure  the  location  of  the  first  Baptist 
hospital  in  Winston-Salem.  It  was  a  community,  not 
a  Baptist,  effort.  On  the  night  before  the  canvass  was 
to  start,  the  workers  met  for  dinner.  The  principal 
speaker  was  Mr.  W.  M.  Hendren,  a  Methodist  layman. 
The  climax  of  his  notably  impressive  address — ^the  rally- 
ing cry  of  the  campaign — was  that  the  city  could  ill  af- 
ford not  to  do  its  part  towards  securing  and  maintaining 
the  Baptist  hospital  because  it  was  the  Baptist  denomi- 
nation that  had  given  to  Winston-Salem  its  greatest  pos- 
session— ^the  life  and  character  of  Dr.  Henry  A.  Brown. 

The  next  night,  when  it  was  apparent  that  the  city  had 
already  oversubscribed  its  allotment  and  that  contribu- 
tions would  continue  to  be  made,  at  the  suggestion  of  a 
member  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  a  group  of  citi- 
zens— ^the  group  being  composed  of  Moravians,  Presby- 
terians and  Methodists — went  to  the  First  Baptist 
Church — it  was  prayer-meeting  night  and  they  knew 
where  to  find  him — and,  calling  Dr.  Brown  out,  asked 
the  privilege  of  devoting  all  the  surplus  fund  to  a  ward 
memorial  to  him  to  which  the  sick  and  needy  might  be 
admitted  without  cost.  They  knew  that  a  charity  w^ard 
would  be  the  most  fitting  memorial  to  one  who  had  given 
his  life  for  the  sick  and  needv. 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  27 

At  the  celebration  of  Dr.  Brown's  fortieth  anniversary 
as  pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church,  ex-Governor  Rob- 
ert B.  Glenn,  then  on  his  sickbed  and  only  a  short  while 
before  his  death,  wrote,  unsolicited,  a  letter  of  apprecia- 
tion of  Dr.  Brown  and  asked  the  privilege  of  having  it 
read  by  a  friend  at  the  service.  I  quote  only  a  portion 
of  the  letter:  "Dr.  Brown  and  I  were  raised  in  the  same 
county  and  from  my  young  manhood  to  the  present  hour 
he  has  been  one  of  my  most  loyal  friends  and  supporters. 
To  him  I  have  gone  in  my  joys  and  in  my  sorrows  and 
found  him  a  ready  listener  and  a  true  helper.  In  spirit- 
ual matters  he  has  been  a  friend  beyond  compare,  always 
pointing  me  to  higher  things  and  stimulating  within  me 
noble  thoughts  and  higher  aspirations.  For  these  rea- 
sons I  love  the  man  and  ask  permission  from  a  sickbed 
to  add  my  testimony  to  his  Vv^orth  in  the  community. 

"Dr.  Brown  does  not  belong  alone  to  the  Baptist 
church  and  its  people  but  to  all  creeds  and  people  of 
Winston-Salem,  for  to  all  he  has  been  a  true  friend  and 
adviser  and,  therefore,  won  their  esteem  and  love.  He 
has  married  more  couples,  conducted  and  assisted  in 
more  funerals,  visited  more  sick  (regardless  of  church 
affiliations)  and  been  a  help  and  comfort  to  more  that 
mourned  or  were  in  distress,  than  any  man  who  has  ever 
lived  in  our  city,  and,  good  man  as  he  is,  has  always  been 
ready  to  laugh  with  us  in  our  joys,  sympathize  with  us 
in  our  afflictions,  and  never  turn  away  the  humblest  hun- 
gry soul  without  trying  to  add  a  spiritual  blessing  to  his 
life." 

At  the  time  of  the  thirtieth  anniversary  of  Dr.  Brown's 
pastorate  in  Winston-Salem,  the  local  editor  of  the  Union 
Republican  paid  the  following  tribute  to  him:  "Person- 
ally, the  local  editor  would  say  that  he  has  no  better 
friend  than  Dr.  H.  A.  Brown.    Although  of  different  re- 


28  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

ligious  faiths,  our  respect  for  each  other's  views  could 
not  be  greater  or  our  friendship  deeper  or  more  sincere. 
We  have  been  intimateh^  acquainted,  yea,  associated  on 
many  occasions  since  he  came  to  Winston,  and  his  visits 
to  this  office  are  regular  and  his  presence  always  a  source 
of  pleasure,  as  we  discuss  matters  of  local,  religious,  or 
a  general  nature.  Of  his  sermons  we  have  been  a  fre- 
quent and  always  interested  hearer.  By  his  kindness  of 
heart,  conservative  views,  faithful  and  earnest  in  his 
work,  and  with  the  good  will  of  every  one  at  heart,  Dr. 
Brown  knows  every  one  and  every  one  knows  him,  and 
he  has  wielded  an  influence  in  this  community,  outside 
of  his  pastoral  relations,  which  is  far-reaching  and  as 
lasting  as  life  itself.  His  counsel,  sympathy,  prayers, 
and  sermons  are  a  benediction  and  a  blessing.  And 
while  congratulating  him  upon  his  long  and  successful 
life  and  labor  among  our  people,  we  also  sincerely  hope 
and  desire  that  he  may  be  blessed  with  life,  health  and 
usefulness  for  many  succeeding  years." 

The  Twin  City  Sentinel  said  of  Dr.  Brown,  "If  a 
stranger  should  ask  who  had  done  the  most  for  the  moral 
and  spiritual  welfare  of  the  community  and  who  had 
done  the  most  active  work  to  make  Winston-Salem  an 
ideal  city  in  which  to  live,  the  name  of  Dr.  Brown  would 
be  one  of  the  first  mentioned." 

Beloved  By  the  Baptist  Brotherhood 

Not  only  is  Dr.  Brown  the  pastor  beloved  among  his 
people  of  his  own  city  but  he  is  the  pastor  beloved  to 
many  Baptists  throughout  the  state,  some  of  whom  have 
never  seen  him  in  the  flesh.  As  far  back  as  1906,  the 
editor  of  the  Biblical  Recorder  said  of  Dr.  Brown,  "Since 
the  Beloved  Disciple  went  away,  Brother  Brown  will  be 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  29 

recognized  as  the  saintliest  man  among  us.  He  is  such 
a  man  as  every  Christian  desires  to  be — a  shining  exam- 
ple of  the  Christian  life  and  a  witness  to  Jesus  Christ 
whose  testimony  shines  with  a  bright  and  unvarying 
light.  .  .  .  Brother  Brown's  ministry  is  an  ideal  one — in 
length,  in  progress,  in  his  influence  upon  every  citizen 
of  his  city,  in  his  work  for  the  denomination,  and  in  the 
closeness  of  his  walk  with  God.  ...  It  is  worthy  of  re- 
mark that  he  has  achieved  so  nobly  without  falling  into 
any  peculiar  doctrine  of  higher  life  or  enduement  with 
power;  it  is  enough  for  him  to  live  the  Christian  life." 

Dr.  W.  B.  Royall,  more  than  fifty  years  a  teacher  of 
Greek  at  Wake  Forest  College,  pays  this  tribute  to  his 
former  pupil  and  long-time  friend:  "Years  ago  one  of 
his  old  teachers  had  a  very  heavy  burden  laid  upon  him. 
He  desired  help  that  only  God  could  give  and  felt  the 
need  of  companionship  at  the  throne  of  grace.  Among 
the  few  whom  he  thought  of  as  living  so  near  to  God 
that  he  would  esteem  it  a  privilege  to  be  assured  that 
they  were  praying  with  him  and  for  him,  one  was  his 
former  pupil  and  trusted  friend — H.  A.  Brown," 

Wake  Forest  College,  his  alma  mater,  has  always  de- 
lighted to  do  honor  to  Dr.  Brown.  Graduating  in  1871 
as  salutatorian  of  his  class,  Dr.  Brown  was  called  back 
just  twenty  years  later  to  deliver  the  alumni  address  and 
receive  the  honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  at  the 
commencement  of  1891.  While  appreciating  fully  this 
latter  honor  at  the  hands  of  his  alma  mater,  he  re- 
marked, with  his  irrepressible  humor,  that  it  meant  only 
that  he  was  "forty  and  respectable."  For  a  number  of 
years  he  was  a  trustee  of  the  college.  An  oil  painting 
of  Dr.  Brown,  the  gift  of  Col.  H.  Montague,  now  adorns 
the  walls  of  the  Euzelian  Society  of  which  he  is  a  mem- 
ber. 


30  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

The  Baptist  denomination  has  honored  Dr.  Brown 
whenever  he  would  give  it  the  opportunity  to  do  so.  But 
he  has  always  kept  himself  in  the  background  and 
shrunk  from  anything  that  might  in  any  way  be  inter- 
preted as  exalting  himself.  On  this  point  Dr.  F.  P.  Hob- 
good,  late  president  of  Oxford  College  and  a  college  mate 
of  Dr.  Brown,  said:  "Several  times  I  invited  him  to  come 
over  and  preach  one  of  my  commencement  sermons;  but 
his  self-deprecation  always  prevented  him  from  accept- 
ing such  work  as  this.  He  did  not  assert  himself  and 
did  not  have  much  to  say,  but  what  he  said  on  any  sub- 
ject was  final." 

The  Baptist  State  Convention  of  North  Carolina,  in 
session  in  the  city  of  Durham  in  1917,  took  note  of  Dr. 
Brown's  long  and  distinguished  service  in  Winston-Salem 
by  adopting  a  resolution  from  which  I  quote: 

'^In  the  city  of  Winston-Salem  on  Sunday  next.  Dr. 
Henry  A.  Brown  will  close  his  work  as  pastor  of  the 
First  Baptist  Church  of  that  city.  For  forty  years 
Brother  Brown  has  been  pastor  of  the  First  Baptist 
Church  of  Winston-Salem.  This  is  the  longest  term  of 
service  ever  rendered  by  any  Baptist  pastor  of  a  full- 
time  church  in  this  state.  For  this  reason  we  deem  it 
fitting  that  this  Convention  take  recognition  of  this  nota- 
ble event.    Therefore,  be  it  resolved: 

"That  we  congratulate  Brother  Brown  upon  his  long 
and  successful  pastorate  and  upon  the  marked  tokens  of 
God's  favor  upon  him  and  his  work. 

"That  we  congratulate  the  City  of  Winston-Salem 
upon  having  secured  the  consent  of  Brother  Brown  to 
become  pastor  emeritus  of  all  the  Baptist  churches  in  the 
city.  This  is  a  very  happy  arrangement,  as  the  church 
of  which  Brother  Brown  has  been  pastor  is  the  mother 
of  all  the  other  Baptist  churches  in  the  city. 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  31 

"That  we  extend  to  our  beloved  brother  our  cordial 
and  fraternal  greeting  and  assure  him  of  our  abiding 
love  for  him  personally  and  of  our  thorough  apprecia- 
tion of  the  great  work  he  has  done  in  Winston-Salem 
and  of  the  valuable  service  he  has  rendered  the  cause  at 
large." 

Enough  has  been  said,  to  be  sure,  to  show  that  Dr. 
Brown  is  richly  entitled  to  the  appellation  'Tastor  Be- 
loved." What  an  array  of  witnesses!  The  members  of 
his  own  congregation  throughout  a  pastorate  of  forty 
years,  his  associates  in  the  ministry  of  the  gospel,  his  fel- 
low Christians  of  all  denominations,  his  fellow  citizens  of 
every  walk  and  condition  of  life— the  child,  the  colored 
servant,  the  leading  citizen,  the  city  at  its  worst,  bent 
upon  lynching  a  criminal,  the  city  at  its  best,  promoting 
the  ministry  of  healing,  his  schoolmates  and  teachers! 
Tributes  and  events  chosen  at  random  show  more  clearly 
than  anything  I  could  say  the  extent  to  which  he  is  the 
pastor  beloved. 

But  why  is  he  the  pastor  beloved?  Not  because  of 
his  generosity,  for  his  means  have  always  been  very  lim- 
ited. Besides,  men  cannot  purchase  love  with  gifts.  Not 
because  of  offices  he  has  held.  He  has  always  shrunk 
from  public  notice.  Besides,  men  win  homage,  not  love, 
with  fame.  Not  his  intellect,  though  that  has  been  keen 
and  clear.  But  men  do  not  win  love  by  logic.  No,  Dr. 
Brown  is  the  pastor  beloved  because  of  other,  more  abid- 
ing qualities  that  go  to  make  up  his  personality. 

From  now  on  our  aim  will  be  to  find  in  a  study  of  the 
life  and  character  of  Dr.  Brown  an  answer  to  the  ques- 
tion why  is  he  the  pastor  beloved;  with  the  hope  that  in 
his  life  and  philosophy  of  life  others  may  find  the  way 
to  become  pastors  beloved,  whether  inside  or  outside  the 
ministry  of  the  gospel. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  SIMPLE  LIFE 

"He  that  is  faithful  in  that  which  is  least  is  faithful  also  in 
much."  Luke  xvi:  10. 

The  value  of  the  life  of  the  pastor  beloved  cannot 
be  determined  without  taking  into  account  the  events 
of  his  career,  simple  and  unheroic  though  they  may  be. 
I  mean  such  as  his  birthplace,  his  ancestry,  his  school- 
ing, his  calling. 

His  Birthplace 

Henry  A.  Brown  was  born  September  28,  1846,  in  a 
two-room  log  house,  which  still  stands  on  a  three-hun- 
dred-acre farm  in  Rockingham  County,  North  Carolina, 
near  Wentworth,  the  county  seat.  When  he  was  ten 
years  of  age  the  family  built  and  moved  into  a  three- 
room  frame  house,  which  is  immediately  in  front  of  the 
log  house.  Both  of  these  houses  are  now  occupied  by 
tenants  on  the  farm  of  Dr.  Brown's  brother,  Robert. 
In  an  article  in  the  Christian  Index,  August  31,  1905, 
entitled  ''Vacation  Notes,"  Dr.  Brown  has  this  appre- 
ciation of  his  childhood  home:  "At  the  old  family 
homestead  once  more.  Here  are  the  trees  as  in  other 
days — 'the  deep  tangled  wildwood  and  every  spot  that 
infancy  knew.'  Here  is  the  path  to  the  spring,  over 
which  my  childish  feet  wandered  in  days  that  are  gone. 
Surely  the  water  that  David  drank  from  the  well  of 
Bethlehem  was  not  sweeter  to  the  taste.    If  I  could  be 

[32] 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  33 

a  child  again  but  for  tonight,  I  should  see  the  dear 
faces  long  vanished  from  human  sight,  and  hear  the  voice 
of  mother  at  the  close  of  day,  as  in  olden  times.  New 
people  live  in  the  dear  old  buildings,  new  faces  look 
out  of  the  windows;  it  is  not  home  to  me  any  more!  I 
visit  the  old  barn  in  which  I  knelt  forty  years  ago  and 
obtained  pardon  and  peace.  It  will  always  be  a  dear 
spot  of  ground  to  me— the  place  of  my  spiritual  birth. 
Not  Peniel,  of  which  we  read  in  patriarchal  times,  not 
the  hill  Mizar  of  which  David  speaks,  not  'Silca's  brook, 
which  flowed  hard  by  the  oracle  of  God,'  not  that  place 
on  the  Damascus  road  near  the  city  gates  where  Saul  of 
Tarsus  saw  the  light  of  life,  mean  so  much  to  me." 

His  Parents 

Dr.  Brown's  father,  Robeii:  Brown,  was  a  school 
teacher  and  farmer;  he  was  not  a  very  practical  business 
man.  At  a  time  when  lawyers  were  few,  he  prepared 
deeds,  wills  and  other  legal  papers  of  his  neighbors.  Dr. 
Brown  speaks  of  his  father  as  "the  adviser  of  the  neigh- 
borhood." 

His  mother,  Sarah  Troth  Brown,  was  born  and  reared 
in  the  same  neighborhood  of  Rockingham  County.  She 
was  the  better  manager  and  stronger  personality  of  the 
two.  Dr.  Brown  says  that  after  the  Civil  War  his  father 
was  despondent.  "All  the  labor  of  his  life  had  been 
swept  away.  The  slaves  were  freed,  the  children  were 
small.  His  strength  was  gone.  There  were  debts  to  be 
paid.  But  my  mother  was  an  heroic  mould.  She  said, 
'The  children  are  growing  every  year.  The  home  and 
land  are  still  left  us.  We  will  take  hold  and  bring  things 
to  pass.  It  is  never  so  bad  that  it  might  not  be  worse. 
God  will  help  us  through  and  all  will  be  well'." 


34  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

Dr.  Brown  had  three  brothers  and  three  sisters,  only 
one  of  whom  is  still  living — Mr.  Robert  Brown,  who 
owns  and  occupies  the  old  Brown  homeplace,  having 
added  to  the  land  until  he  now  has  a  plantation  of  six 
hundred  acres. 

His  Ancestry 

On  his  father's  side.  Dr.  Brown's  ancestors  were  Scotch 
Irish.  His  grandfather,  Robert  Brown,  moved  to  Rock- 
ingham County  from  Winchester,  Virginia,  soon  after 
the  Revolutionary  War.  He  was  a  sturdy  tiller  of  the 
soil,  owned  a  good  plantation  and  several  slaves,  and 
accumulated  some  property.  Through  his  paternal 
grandmother,  who  was  a  Campbell,  Dr.  Brown  is  related 
to  General  Samuel  Houston  of  Texas. 

On  his  mother's  side,  his  ancestors  were  English.  Her 
father,  Henry  Troth,  died  when  she  was  three  days  old. 
He  was  referred  to  as  ''an  exemplary  young  man." 
Through  his  maternal  grandmother.  Dr.  Brown  is  re- 
lated to  General  Abraham  Phillips,  General  of  the  Mili- 
tia after  the  Revolutionary  War,  who  was  one  of  the 
leading  citizens  of  Rockingham  County  during  the  early 
years  of  the  Republic. 

His  Youth 

Dr.  Brown  speaks  of  himself  as  being  "a  delicate  child, 
nervous  and  imaginative,"  to  whose  uncertain  appetite 
his  mother  catered.  He  says  that  he  never  used  intoxi- 
cating liquors.  Mr.  G.  W.  Suitts  of  Wentworth,  one  of 
the  few  now  living  who  knev/  him  as  a  child,  says  that 
Henry  Brown  was  one  of  the  most  pious  boys  he  ever 
knew.  ''I  never  knew  him  to  indulge  in  anything  that 
was  of  a  sinful  nature,"  says  Mr.  Suitt. 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  35 

He  went  to  school  during  the  winter  months  to  the 
Piney  Grove  District  School,  which  was  about  three 
miles  from  his  home.  His  father  was  his  teacher.  Says 
Dr.  Brown,  "I  owe  a  great  deal  to  my  father's  teaching. 
He  made  me  spell  every  word  in  Walker's  Dictionary. 
It  was  three  miles  to  the  school  house,  and  he  would 
give  me  six  pages  to  recite  to  him  on  the  way  home.  He 
also  drilled  me  in  arithmetic.  Sometimes,  he  would  lose 
patience  with  me,  thinking  I  was  a  blockhead." 

His  Army  Life 

On  the  15th  of  February,  1864,  the  Confederate  Con- 
gress passed  an  act  for  the  enrollment  of  Junior  and 
Senior  Reserves,  the  former  boys  between  seventeen  and 
eighteen;  the  latter  men  between  forty-five  and  fifty.  In 
March,  1864,  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  Henry  Brown,  over 
the  protest  of  his  mother,  enlisted  at  Wentworth  as  a 
Junior  Reserve  and  was  ordered  to  report  to  Col.  John 
H.  Anderson  at  Greensboro.  Thence  he  was  ordered  to 
Camp  Holmes,  Raleigh,  where  his  company  as  Com- 
pany 0,  was  attached  to  the  Fourth  Battalion  under  the 
command  of  Major  John  M.  Reece.  In  June  his  company 
was  ordered  to  Camp  Davis  on  Masonboro  Sound  below 
Wilmington,  w^here  it  spent  six  months  guarding  the 
State  Salt  Works  and  the  beach— the  latter  to  prevent 
slaves  escaping  to  the  Federal  gun-boats.  While  here 
Sergeant  Brown  was  stricken  with  malarial  fever  and 
taken  to  the  hospital.  In  December  of  that  year  his 
battalion  participated  in  the  bombardment  of  Fort 
Fisher.  Thence  it  was  rushed  on  flat  cars  to  Bellfield, 
Virginia,  where  it  helped  repulse  General  Grant's  ef- 
forts to  destroy  Weldon  Bridge.  The  battalion  helped 
repulse  another  raid  fifteen  miles  down  the  river  from 


36  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

Tarboro.  Returning  to  Goldsboro,  the  Junior  Reserves 
were  organized  into  the  Third  Regiment,  with  Col.  John 
W.  Hinsdale  in  command.  This  was  later  known  as  the 
Seventy-second  North  Carolina  State  Troops,  Company 
K,  attached  to  Armistead's  Brigade,  Hoke's  Division. 
At  Kinston  the  Division  met  a  Federal  force  approach- 
ing from  New  Bern,  and  the  Junior  Reserves  were  in 
the  thick  of  a  fierce  fight.  ''Here  it  was,"  says  Dr. 
Brown,  ''men  and  horses  were  shot  down  near  me.  I 
asked  the  Lord  to  spare  me.  I  promised  to  devote  my- 
self in  body,  mind  and  spirit  to  his  service."  At  Smith- 
field,  after  the  Battle  of  Kinston,  the  Junior  Reserves 
were  reviewed  by  General  Johnston  and  Governor 
Vance — the  last  review  of  the  Confederacy — and  Gover- 
nor Vance  made  a  mem.orable  speech  addressed  to  the 
Junior  Brigade.  Then  began  the  long  retreat — ^through 
Raleigh,  Chapel  Hill,  Alamance,  on  to  Randolph  County, 
fording  swollen  streams  waist  deep.  It  was  on  this 
march  that  his  commander,  Capt.  F.  M.  Hamlin,  now 
of  Danville,  Virginia,  noticing  Sergeant  Brown  limping 
and  struggling  along,  said: 

"Brown,  how  are  you  making  it?" 

"I  am  almost  given  out  and  don't  feel  I  can  hold  out 
much  longer,"  he  replied. 

"Certainly,  Brown,  you  can  last  to  Rockingham,"  he 
said. 

"Yes,  Captain;  I  will  go  as  long  as  the  flag  is  held 
up  or  fall  in  my  tracks." 

"I  looked,"  says  Captain  Hamlin,  "and  saw  that  his 
feet  were  swollen  and  actually  bleeding.  I  said,  'Yes, 
Brown;  I  know  what  you  are  made  of." 

Captain  Hamlin  says,  "Sergeant  Brown  was  the  one 
man  in  the  company  who  had  religion  enough  in  his 
heart  to  know  it  himself,  and  enough  shown  in  his  life 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  37 

that  others  could  see  and  know  it.  May  I  not  testify 
that  after  fifteen  months  in  camp,  on  the  march,  and 
in  battle  with  Sergeant  Brown,  he  has  measured  up  to 
the  highest  mark  in  his  patriotism,  his  fidelity,  and  ef- 
ficiency? As  Captain  of  the  one  hundred  and  forty  boys, 
(I  testify)  not  one  excelled  him,  if  any  equalled  him." 

Col.  John  W.  Hinsdale  pays  this  eloquent  tribute  to 
the  Junior  Reserves:  ''North  Carolina  has  much  to 
be  proud  of.  She  was  first  at  Bethel,  she  went  farthest 
at  Gettysburg,  she  was  last  at  Appomattox.  Her  dead 
and  wounded  in  battle  exceeded  in  numbers  that  of  any 
other  two  States  of  the  Confederacy  together.  But  her 
best  and  most  precious  offering  to  the  cause  of  liberty 
was  her  boy  soldiers,  who,  at  her  bidding,  willingly  left 
their  homes  and  marched  and  fought  and  starved  and 
froze  and  bled  that  she  might  live  and  be  free.  God 
bless  the  Junior  Reserves.  Their  memory  will  ever  be 
cherished  by  the  Old  North  State  they  loved  so  well." 

After  the  surrender.  Sergeant  Brown  was  one  of  those 
who  volunteered  to  go  west  across  the  Mississippi  and 
carry  on  guerilla  warfare.  But  fortunately,  the  better 
judgment  of  the  leaders  prevailed  and  Sergeant  Brown 
returned  to  his  home  in  Rockingham  County. 

His  Preparation  for  College 

The  first  year  after  the  surrender  Dr.  Brown  worked 
on  his  father's  farm  and  taught  the  district  school.  The 
next  year  he  began  his  preparation  for  college.  'He  at- 
tended two  preparatory  schools  in  Guilford  County — 
one  at  Center,  taught  by  Mr.  Gid.  Hines;  the  other  at 
Monticello,  taught  by  Rev.  John  C.  Denny,  a  Presby- 
terian preacher.  Of  his  school  days  at  Center  and  Mon- 
ticello, Dr.  Brown  says:     ''Everything  was  scarce,  and 


38  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

the  young  men  organized  the  'mess'  plan.  Each  boy 
furnished  so  much  meal,  bacon,  lard,  butter,  etc.  Then 
we  hired  a  good  country  woman  to  do  the  cooking  for 
us.  In  that  way  my  board  cost  me  $4.00  per  month. 
It  was  a  hard  life  I  lived  in  those  days.  My  mother 
made  the  homespun  clothes  I  wore  and  had  my  washing 
done  for  me.  I  would  walk  home  once  in  two  weeks,  a 
distance  of  fifteen  or  twenty  miles,  to  get  my  clean 
clothes.  It  was  here  I  did  my  hardest  work.  I  studied 
Latin,  the  grammar  and  reader,  read  Caesar  and  Ovid, 
read  Greek,  and  stumbled  and  fumbled  and  fretted  with 
Algebra.  I  was  just  beginning  to  practice  in  preaching 
and  would  go  out  on  Sundays  and  do  my  best  before  the 
eager  crowds  of  country  people  w^ho  wanted  to  hear  what 
a  pale,  beardless  boy  had  to  say  about  religion,  duty, 
and  destiny.    I  spent  nearly  two  years  in  these  schools." 

His  College  Days 

Dr.  Brown  entered  Wake  Forest  College  in  the  fall  of 
1867  as  a  beneficiary  of  the  Beulah  Association  and 
graduated  in  the  spring  of  1871,  the  salutatorian  of  his 
class.  Of  his  college  life,  he  says:  "I  had  been  well  pre- 
pared and  had  no  difficulty  in  entering.  I  roomed  in  the 
old  college  building  (now  the  Administration  Building). 
I  made  my  own  fires,  brought  up  my  own  water,  made 
my  own  bed,  and  cleaned  my  own  room.  It  was  a  year 
of  strenuous  work,  great  sacrifice  and  self-denial.  I 
made  many  friends.  The  boys  in  the  college  helped  in 
many  ways.  I  soon  felt  at  home  with  them  and  the 
professors  in  the  college.  I  joined  the  Euzelian  Society. 
I  liked  its  motto,  'I  will  find  a  way  or  make  one.'  That 
motto  often  fired  my  ambition  to  do  my  very  best.  I 
boarded  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  J.  M.  Brewer  and  in  their 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  B9 

house  shared  many  blessings  and  privileges.  Here  I 
heard  the  story  of  Dr.  Wait  and  his  saintly  wife,  of  their 
long  journey  over  the  State  in  a  buggy,  of  the  early 
history  of  Wake  Forest.  I  have  never  known  more 
lovely  people  than  the  Brewer  family.  I  served  as  the 
janitor  of  the  Euzelian  Society  for  a  few  months  and  in 
that  way  paid  some  of  my  little  expenses.  I  read  many 
books  in  the  library.  I  always  prepared  myself  to  make 
a  speech  on  every  question  under  debate.  This  required 
much  time  and  thought,  but  it  was  worth  all  it  cost  me. 
I  was  in  love  with  all  the  professors  and  all  the  students 
of  both  literary  societies.  Love  begets  love.  I  found 
many  anxious  and  willing  to  help  me.  I  attended  every 
prayer  meeting  and  every  preaching  service  when  I  was 
not  away,  myself.  I  was  superintendent  of  a  mission 
Sunday  school  a  few  miles  from  the  college  (Neuse 
Mills).  I  often  preached  at  that  point  on  Sundays  at 
eleven  o'clock.  Kind  friends  were  sympathetic  and 
gave  me  opportunity  to  improve  my  gifts.  They  helped 
me  financially  and  encouraged  me  in  many  ways.  I 
served  my  society  (Euzelian)  in  many  ways.  I  acted 
as  a  critic,  secretary,  and  president,  and  served  on  many 
committees.  I  am  indebted  to  my  work  in  the  literary 
society  for  much  of  whatever  has  come  to  me  in  later 
life.  A  young  man  makes  a  great  mistake  in  college 
who  does  not  take  advantage  of  all  the  opportunities 
afforded  him  by  his  literary  society.  I  was  laughed  at 
in  some  of  my  first  speeches.  My  voice  was  not  under 
good  control.  I  was  nervous  and  excited,  awkward  and 
full  of  imperfections.  Some  well-dressed  young  men 
laughed  immoderately  at  my  unseemly  bearing  and  my 
peculiar  way  of  expressing  my  thoughts.  I  remember 
well  how  I  winced  under  these  things.  I  said  to  myself, 
'I  shall  see  to  it  that  these  young  men  shall  recognize  my 


40  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

ability  to  do  things.'  It  was  not  many  months  before 
they  would  come  to  my  room  to  get  my  aid  in  reading 
Latin,  Greek,  etc.  They  were  my  truest  friends  and,  in 
after  years,  always  ready  to  boost  me  and  put  me  for- 
ward as  their  friend  and  champion.  I  was  elected  unani- 
mously to  deliver  the  address  on  one  of  the  anniversary 
occasions  and  at  its  delivery  received  an  ovation  at 
their  hands.  A  little  criticism  and  fun-making  at  a 
young  man's  expense  often  prove  a  means  of  stimulat- 
ing him  to  do  his  best.  I  preached  a  few  times  before 
the  students  in  the  chapel,  but  always  with  more  or  less 
trepidation.  I  did  not  call  on  the  ladies  very  often,  as 
I  felt  I  did  not  have  time  and  I  knew  I  would  have  many 
opportunities  later  in  life.  My  motto  was,  'I  must  do 
one  thing  at  a  time  and  do  that  one  thing  well'  My 
classes  were  large  during  the  first  years  of  my  college 
life.  But  many  dropped  out  as  the  months  passed.  Only 
four  young  men  graduated  when  I  did.  The  names  of 
these  young  men  were  W.  D.  Trantham,  William  Sykes, 
Columbus  Durham  and  H.  A.  Brown.  I  graduated  in  an 
alpaca  coat  that  cost  $3.00.  It  was  the  best  I  could 
afford.  But,  thanks  to  an  appreciative  audience,  I  was 
none  the  less  honored.  Wake  Forest  has  always  been 
one  of  the  dearest  places  on  this  earth  to  die.  For  her 
I  have  labored  and  prayed  through  many  a  year,  and 
rejoiced  at  every  advance  made  by  my  Alma  Mater. 
From  her  walls  have  gone  out  some  of  the  best  and  most 
distinguished  men  who  have  helped  to  make  our  good 
old  North  State  memorable  among  the  sister  States  of 
our  Federal  Union." 

Dr.  W.  B.  Royall  tells  an  incident  of  Dr.  Brown's 
college  life  that  throws  some  light  on  his  character.  He 
says,  "One  attribute  of  his  character  was  very  marked. 
He  shrank  almost  morbidly  from  the  building  of  any 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  41 

kind  of  wall  between  himself  and  those  to  whose  service 
he  wished  to  dedicate  his  life.  He  was  afraid  that  a 
college  diploma  might  do  this.  He  came  to  see  it  in  a 
different  light  and  wisely  decided  to  complete  his  college 
course.  We  know  now  that  his  college  education  was  but 
a  stepping  stone  to  the  attainment  of  that  fervid  and 
eloquent  simplicity  and  ease  with  which  he  writes  and 
speaks  and  gives  him  access  to  the  minds  and  hearts  of 
the  learned  and  the  unlearned,  of  saints  and  sinners." 

His  Conversion,  Baptism  and  Call  to  the  Ministry 

Dr.  Brown  was  born  into  a  moral  but  not  a  religious 
home.  At  the  time  of  his  conversion  not  a  member  of 
his  family  was  connected  with  any  church.  His  mother 
was  converted  and  baptized  two  years  after  he  was. 
She  testified  that  she  was  first  impressed  of  her  need  for 
salvation  while  witnessing  her  son's  baptism.  Then 
followed  the  conversion  and  baptism  of  Dr.  Brown's 
father  and  his  six  brothers  and  sisters. 

Dr.  Brown  was  inclined  toward  religion  from  his  earli- 
est youth.  Of  himself  he  says  that  he  was  religiously 
inclined  from  his  earliest  recollection,  that  he  prayed 
much  without  having  been  taught,  and  that  he  had  faith 
in  prayer.  Mr.  G.  W.  Suitts,  already  mentioned  as  one 
of  his  boyhood  friends,  says:  ''At  that  time  there  was 
not  a  church  near  his  home,  and  he  was  eager  to  be  in 
the  service  of  his  Master.  So  he  conducted  a  Sunday 
school  and  prayer  meeting  in  a  district  school  building." 

After  the  War,  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  he  was  con- 
verted. He  took  me  to  the  very^  spot.  It  was  in  a  barn 
standing  near  a  big  oak  tree  in  front  of  his  father's 
house.  The  barn  is  gone  but  the  tree  still  stands.  'Till 
then,"   he   says,   '1   had  never   had   any   experimental 


42  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

knowledge  of  Christ.  I  had  been  a  moral  youth.  I  had 
no  bad  habits.  But  I  felt  that  my  heart  was  not  right. 
Kneeling  there  in  the  bam,  I  had  a  definite  experience 
that  I  would  not  swap  for  any  other  experience  I  ever 
had.  A  deep  sense  of  unworthiness  crept  over  me,  and 
I  cried,  'Oh,  Lord,  I  am  oppressed;  undertake  for  me.' 
Like  the  prodigal,  I  said,  'I  have  sinned  against  heaven 
and  in  thy  sight,  and  am  not  worthy  to  be  called  thy 
son.'  In  penitence  and  deep  contrition  of  soul,  I  said, 
'Here,  Lord,  I  come;  take  me  just  as  I  am.'  I  looked  on 
him  and  he  looked  on  me,  and  we  were  one  forever.  I 
was  a  new  creation  in  him.    Old  things  passed  away  and 

all  things  became  new. 

(' 
'Tongue  cannot  express 
The  sweet  comfort  and  peace 
Of  a  soul  in  its  earliest  love'." 

He  w^as  baptized  in  Troublesome  Creek,  Rockingham 
County,  by  Rev.  F.  H.  Jones  and  joined  Summerfield 
Baptist  Church.  Of  his  baptism,  he  says,  "It  was  a 
beautiful  Sunday  morning  in  the  month  of  September. 
The  birds  were  singing  in  the  trees.  The  water  moved 
softly  in  its  glad  march  to  the  sea.  Two  nieces  of  Gover- 
nor Reid,  the  Misses  Scott,  were  baptized  on  the  same 
day.  My  mother,  yet  unconverted,  stood  on  the  banks  of 
the  stream.  I  was  buried  in  the  likeness  of  my  Saviour's 
death  and  raised  in  the  likeness  of  his  resurrection.  I 
was  symbolically  dead  and  buried  to  the  world  and 
raised  to  the  newness  of  life  in  Christ.  I  had  the  answer 
of  a  good  conscience  and  went  on  my  way  rejoicing." 

The  impression  that  he  should  preach  the  gospel  came 
to  Dr.  Brown  soon  after  he  was  baptized  in  1865.  Others 
were  similarly  impressed  about  him,  for  on  the  day  he 
was  baptized  some  one  in  the  congregation  remarked 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  43 

that  a  Baptist  preacher  had  been  baptized  that  day. 
But  he  was  not  ordained  till  six  years  later,  in  1871, 
soon  after  he  had  graduated  from  Wake  Forest  College. 
The  ordination  service  was  held  at  Yanceyville  in  Cas- 
well County.  The  presbytery  was  composed  of  Dr. 
W.  M.  Wingate  of  Wake  Forest  College,  Rev.  F.  H. 
Jones,  who  had  baptized  him  six  years  before.  Rev.  S.  G. 
Mason,  Rev.  W.  S.  Fontaine,  Rev.  F.  M.  Jordan  and 
Rev.  P.  H.  Fontaine.  The  sermon  was  preached  by  Dr. 
Wingate  from  the  text,  ''Go  out  into  the  highways  and 
hedges  and  compel  them  to  come  in."  The  ordination 
prayer  was  offered  by  Rev.  F.  H.  Jones  and  the  charge 
given  by  Rev.  F.  M.  Jordan. 

His  estimate  of  the  ministry  of  the  gospel  as  a  life- 
work  is  expressed  by  Dr.  Brown  in  these  words:  ''Next 
to  the  assurance  of  salvation  is  the  joy  of  being  put  into 
the  ministry,  called  of  God  as  was  Aaron,  chosen  as 
was  Paul,  subject  to  the  law  of  necessity  w^hich  inhered  in 
the  economy  of  grace.  Well  may  a  true  minister  mag- 
nify his  ojQfice.  He  bears  in  his  message  the  unspeakable 
riches  of  Christ.  He  is  a  chosen  vessel  meet  for  the 
Master's  use.  He  enjoys  a  privilege  not  given  to  angels 
that  circle  the  throne  of  God." 


His  Missionary  Work 

Soon  after  his  ordination  Dr.  Brown  was  engaged  by 
the  State  Mission  Board  to  do  mission  work  in  Rock- 
ingham, Guilford,  Stokes  and  Forsyth  Counties.  I  can- 
not do  better  than  let  him  tell  in  his  own  way  his  ex- 
periences as  a  young  minister  in  a  mission  field.  "1  had 
eight  or  nine  appointments  to  reach  each  month.  This 
required  riding  on  horseback  nearly  one  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  per  month.    I  had  to  ford  Dan  River  four  or 


44  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

five  times  a  month.  Often  it  was  swollen  and  I  came 
near  having  trouble  and  being  in  danger  on  several  occa- 
sions. I  rode  a  hard-trotting  horse  which  gave  me  fine 
exercise. 

"One  of  the  mission  points  was  at  Beaver  Island,  six 
miles  above  Madison,  among  the  hills  of  upper  Rocking- 
ham County.  A  few  Baptist  families  resided  in  that 
community.  We  met  in  a  log  schoolhouse.  I  preached 
there  on  Saturday  and  Sunday  once  a  month.  I  held  a 
protracted  meeting  under  a  large  bush  arbor.  The  peo- 
ple came  from  near  and  far.  One  Sunday,  while  I  was 
preaching,  I  saw  a  young  man  who  was  much  exercised. 
He  was  standing  by  a  post  with  his  arm  about  it  and 
trembling.  I  approached  him  and  asked  the  cause  of 
his  alarm.  He  said,  ^I  am  a  lost  man.  I  feel  as  if 
the  earth  would  sink  under  my  feet.  Will  you  tell  me 
what  to  do?'    I  said,  'Yes,  repeat  after  me, 

*Yet  save  a  trembling  sinner,  Lord, 
Whose  hope  still  hovers  around  thy  Word, 
Would  light  on  some  sweet  promise  there, 
Some  sure  support  against  despair.' 

He  and  many  others  professed  religion.  I  baptized  a 
number  in  Mayo  River.  Then  we  began  to  discuss  the 
building  of  a  new  house  of  worship  on  a  piece  of  ground 
not  far  away.  The  people  were  poor,  money  was  scarce, 
and  there  were  many  discouragements.  One  elderly  man 
was  a  carpenter.  The  brethren  sawed  and  hauled  lum- 
ber to  the  place.  This  old  man  began  the  building.  He 
w^as  much  discouraged  at  times.  Once  when  I  went  there 
to  preach  he  said  to  me: 

'^  'I  have  had  a  great  wrestle  down  there  in  the  woods.' 

"I  said,  'With  whom  did  you  wrestle?' 

"He  said,  'With  Satan.  Satan  said  to  me,  "You  have 
no  business  giving  of  your  time  and  strength  to  build 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  45 

this  house.    Let  some  one  else  build  it  or  let  it  go  un- 
built".' 

''Then  the  old  man  said  to  him,  'It  is  none  of  your 
business  what  I  do  with  my  time  and  strength.'  Then 
we  clinched  and  I  had  it  out  with  him. 

"This  house  was  finished  in  due  time  and  since  then 
many  souls  have  been  born  into  the  Kingdom  in  it. 
(Beaver  Island  Baptist  Church.) 

''Another  mission  point  was  at  Oak  Ridge,  ten  miles 
north  in  Stokes  County.  We  met  in  a  school  house. 
Many  people  lived  in  the  vicinity,  but  very  few  who 
professed  religion.  We  held  a  protracted  meeting  there 
and  many  professed  faith.  It  was  here  I  baptized  my 
first  candidate.  Brother  F.  M.  Jordan,  who  had  assisted 
me  in  the  meeting,  went  into  the  water  with  me  to  show 
me  how  to  baptize.  The  man  to  be  baptized  was  past 
sixty  years  of  age.  After  this  first  baptism  I  baptized 
a  negro  woman,  and  then  quite  a  number  of  others. 
During  the  meeting  an  incident  occurred  which  caused 
much  discussion.  One  day  at  the  close  of  the  sermon 
persons  who  wished  to  be  prayed  for  were  asked  to  kneel 
in  the  congregation.  A  young  girl  about  ten  years  of 
age  knelt.  When  her  father,  who  was  not  a  Christian, 
saw  it,  he  left  his  seat,  went  and  pulled  his  daughter 
from  her  knees,  led  her  to  the  door  and  pushed  her  out. 
Then  he  walked  about  the  yard,  talked  loudly  and 
created  much  disturbance.  The  young  girl  went  home 
and  was  soon  after  seized  by  some  serious  disease.  I 
was  sent  for  to  go  and  see  her  and  pray  for  her.  Her 
brothers  were  engaged  in  a  neighborhood  broil  and  were 
badly  wounded.  The  girl  died  and  shadows  deep  fell 
on  the  community.  The  incident  produced  a  profound 
impression  in  the  community. 


46  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

''Soon  after  I  began  preaching  there  I  heard  there  was 
a  man  living  not  far  away  who  had  a  very  interesting 
family  but  who  never  went  to  preaching  and  did  not  like 
preachers  about  him.  I  decided  to  go  and  see  him.  He 
seemed  a  little  distant  at  first.  I  did  my  best  to  make 
myself  agreeable  and  talked  with  him  about  things  he 
was  interested  in.  I  went  with  him  to  the  stables  to 
feed  the  horses,  to  the  pens  to  feed  his  hogs,  out  to  the 
barns  to  see  his  tobacco,  across  the  fields  to  see  his  grow- 
ing crops.  He  began  to  feel  at  home  with  me.  The  next 
morning,  to  my  great  surprise,  he  hitched  up  his  two- 
horse  wagon,  and  said,  'I  am  going  to  church  and  take 
my  wife  and  all  my  children.  And  I  want  you  to  make 
my  house  your  home  when  you  are  in  the  neighbor- 
hood. I  have  plenty  to  eat,  good  fires  to  sit  by,  and  you 
are  as  welcome  as  you  can  be.'  He  became  my  fast 
friend  and  was  always  at  church  after  that  on  Saturday 
and  Sunday.  Preachers  should  study  human  nature.  It 
is  more  important  than  reading  theological  discussions. 

"There  was  an  old  colored  woman  who  always  at- 
tended the  services  at  this  point.  She  remained  loyal 
to  her  former  master.  She  was  very  ignorant  but  ver>^ 
pious.  On  one  occasion  I  preached  from  the  text,  'Why 
art  thou  cast  down,  0  my  soul,  and  why  art  thou  dis- 
quieted within  me?  Hope  thou  in  God  for  I  shall  praise 
him,'  etc.  I  tried  to  tell  something  about  the  soul.  It 
was  separate  and  different  from  the  body.  It  was  the  un- 
dying, imperishable  part  of  us.  It  was  the  part  that 
thinks,  feels,  reasons,  hopes,  etc.  After  the  sermon  was 
over  and  we  were  on  our  way  to  the  home  where  she 
still  lived  with  her  fonner  master,  several  of  us  were 
talking  together.  This  old  woman  began  to  talk  about 
the  sermon.  She  said,  'The  brother,  he  did  try  so  hard 
to  make  it  plain  about  the  soul,  but,  the  poor  sinner,  he 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  47 

do  not  understand  it,  he  do  not  know  where  the  soul  is, 
but  I  knows  all  about  it.'  Then,  raising  her  foot  and 
striking  the  bottom  of  it  with  her  cane,  she  said,  'There 
is  the  soul.'  I  felt,  after  all  my  efforts  to  simplify  and 
make  the  matter  plain,  I  had  made  poor  headway. 

'The  schoolhouse  was  burned  down,  and,  for  a  time, 
I  preached  in  an  old  storehouse.  Later  a  commodious 
house  was  built  and  a  good  church  has  for  many  years 
been  a  growing  blessing  to  all  this  country  around. 

"At  another  of  my  appointments  there  lived  a  man  of 
age  and  more  than  ordinary  information.  He  was  one 
of  the  brethren  who  feel  called  to  keep  the  preacher 
straight  in  doctrine  and  practice.  I  preached  on  one 
occasion  as  well  as  I  knew  how  to  preach.  After  the 
sermon  was  over  he  took  me  aside  and  said,  'I  am  con- 
strained to  tell  you  that  you  did  not  preach  the  truth 
to-day.  You  greatly  misinterpreted  your  text  and  led 
the  people  astray.'  I  said,  'I  thank  you  for  telling  me 
and  I  am  soriy  if  I  failed  to  teach  the  people  as  they 
should  have  been  taught.  I  confess  I  do  not  know  very 
much,  but  I  spent  considerable  time  preparing  the  ser- 
mon. I  compared  the  text  with  other  passages.  I  fol- 
lowed out  parallel  lines  of  thought.  I  consulted  com- 
mentaries. I  prayed  over  the  matter,  asking  for  guid- 
ance. Perhaps  you  have  not  investigated  the  matter 
closely.  Allow  me  to  ask  you  to  think  of  it  more  and 
at  my  next  appointment  tell  me  of  your  conclusion.' 
When  I  went  back  a  month  later  he  met  me  in  the 
grove  where  I  was  hitching  my  horse.  He  had  a  smile 
on  his  face  and  grasped  my  hand  eagerly  and  said,  'I 
was  too  hasty  in  what  I  said  to  you.  I  find  I  was  wrong 
and  you  were  right.'  It  is  always  well  to  be  sure  that 
we  are  right  before  we  take  it  for  granted  that  the 
preacher  does  not  know  what  he  is  talking  about. 


48  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

^'It  was  at  Summerfield  Church  that  I  made  my  first 
public  prayer.  It  was  at  the  Saturday  meeting.  The 
pastor  took  me  to  walk,  a  little  distance  and  asked  me  if 
I  would  not  pray  at  the  close  of  the  sermon.  I  declined. 
I  said  I  could  not  do  it.  He  said  nothing,  but  on  the 
next  day,  at  the  conclusion  of  his  sennon,  when  the 
house  was  crowded,  he  called  on  me  to  pray.  My  heart 
was  in  my  throat.  I  choked  for  utterance.  I  stam- 
mered and  stumbled  through.  But  I  have  always  been 
thankful  that  he  helped  me  to  do  my  duty.  Many  a 
timid  young  man  could,  perhaps,  pray  in  public  if  called 
on  and  find  himself  able  to  do  v/hat  he  thought  before  he 
could  not  do. 

"I  assisted  in  special  revival  meetings  in  Person, 
Caswell,  Orange,  Guilford,  Rockingham,  Stokes,  Forsyth, 
Surry  and  Davidson  Counties.  I  preached  and  sang 
often  until  I  was  almost  exhausted.  This  continual 
preaching  and  singing  brought  on  a  throat  trouble  which 
caused  me  to  have  to  give  up  my  work  for  several  months. 
I  was  under  the  treatment  of  several  physicians.  Dr.  Joe 
Hollingsworth,  of  Mt.  Airy,  gave  me  some  advice  which 
enabled  me  to  begin  work  again.  It  was  to  dip  myself 
into  Eno  River  every  day  at  sunrise  for  a  month,  to  let 
my  beard  grow  out,  and  to  go  on  preaching."  This  ex- 
plains why  Dr.  Brown  began  wearing  a  full  beard  early  in 
his  life  and  has  continued  to  do  so  ever  since. 


His  Fayetteville  Pastorate 

After  recovering  from  his  throat  trouble  Dr.  Brown 
taught  school  a  few  months  and  then  accepted  the  pas- 
torate of  the  First  Baptist  Church  of  Fayetteville.  We 
have  his  reminiscences  of  this  pastorate  published  in  the 
North  Carolina  Baptist  in  1903. 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  49 

"I  was  called  to  the  pastorate  of  the  Baptist  Church 
in  Fayetteville  in  July  or  August,  1874,  and  remained 
there  three  years,  I  had  never  visited  the  town  and 
was  not  known  to  any  member  of  the  church.  It  was  a 
mystery  to  me  how  my  name  had  gotten  before  them. 
It  was  before  the  days  of  candidating  on  the  part  of 
preachers  or  of  skilful  manipulating  on  the  part  of  pulpit 
committees.  I  learned  afterward  that  Brother  J.  B. 
Richardson  had  spoken  kindly  of  me  to  a  friend  of  his 
who  was  a  member  of  the  church.  A  conference  was 
held,  a  prayer  was  offered,  and  the  call  was  extended. 
I  accepted  it  with  fear  and  trembling,  believing  it  to  be 
the  will  of  God  that  I  should  go.  I  had  never  preached 
in  towns  or  cities,  had  only  labored  a  few  months  as  a 
missionary  in  the  destitute  portions  of  the  Beulah  As- 
sociation.  I  knew  that  Dr.  McDaniel,  who  was  re- 
garded as  a  distinguished  pulpit  orator,  had  served  that 
church  for  many  years.  I  knew  also  that  Rev.  William 
Brunt,  a  graduate  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Seminary,  and 
a  fine  thinker  and  a  preacher  of  no  mean  ability  had 
succeeded  Dr.  McDaniel.  I  can  never  describe  the 
feelings  of  anxiety  that  filled  my  bosom  as  I  contem- 
plated entering  the  pulpit  as  a  successor  to  these  men 
of  God.  With  scarcely  any  experience  as  a  pastor,  with 
only  a  few  poorly  prepared  sermons,  with  my  Bible  and 
a  dozen  or  more  other  books  I  made  my  arrangements  to 
obey  what  I  felt  to  be  the  call  of  God. 

'There  was  only  one  passenger  train  a  day  that  slowly 
crept  into  the  Fayetteville  of  that  period.  It  was  night 
when  I  boarded  the  train  at  Sanford,  having  come 
from  Gary  that  afternoon.  I  saw,  soon  after  enter- 
ing, a  well-dressed,  dignified  man  in  the  rear  of  the 
car.  I  decided  to  engage  him  in  conversation,  if  pos- 
sible.    I  found  him  affable  and  well-informed.     I  soon 


50  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

learned  that  he  resided  in  Fayetteville,  that  he  had  been 
North  to  buy  a  stock  of  goods,  that  he  was  a  jeweler, 
that  he  knew  everybody  in  Fayetteville,  that  he  could 
tell  me  many  things  I  w^as  anxious  to  know.  I  was  care- 
ful not  to  tell  my  name  or  my  mission.  I  interrogated 
him  about  the  preachers,  the  churches,  the  Sunday 
schools.  He  talked  freely  and  wonderfully  interest- 
ingly to  me.  I  ventured,  at  length,  to  ask  if  the  Baptist 
Church  had  a  pastor.  He  answered  in  the  negative.  He 
spoke  tenderly  of  McDaniel  and  Brunt,  and  of  G.  W. 
Greene,  who  had  supplied  for  a  time.  Then  he  said,  'I 
have  heard  that  the  church  has  called  a  young  man  by 
the  name  of  Brown  from  the  hills  of  the  western  section 
of  the  State,  but  I  have  not  seen  him,  never  heard  of  him 
before.' 

''I  said,  'Is  it  believed  that  this  young  man  will  ac- 
cept the  call?' 

''He  said,  'None  of  the  members  seems  to  know  and 
it  seems  like  a  leap  in  the  dark.' 

"  'It  seems,'  I  said,  'like  a  risky  business,  but  I  hope  it 
will  turn  out  well.'   I  still  played  non-committal. 

"  'My  friend,'  he  continued,  'I  do  not  know  you,  or 
what  you  are  religiously,  but  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say 
that  I  am  a  Baptist  and  not  ashamed  of  my  people,  their 
faith,  their  history,  or  their  good  w^orks.' 

"I  answered  that  I  had  known  some  very  estimable 
people  among  the  Baptists,  and  some  who  were  only 
flesh  and  blood  with  all  the  inherited  weaknesses  com- 
mon to  poor,  frail  human  nature.  I  wanted  to  know  if 
the  Baptist  Church  in  Fayetteville  was  in  peace  among 
themselves,  if  there  were  any  factions  among  them,  if 
they  were  loyal  to  their  pastor,  if  there  were  any  cranks 
in  the  membership,  if  they  were  willing  to  be  led,  if  there 
w^ere  any  critic  among  them,  etc. 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  51 

"He  answered  discreetly  and  truthfully.  The  con- 
ductor cried  out,  'Fayetteville/  and  we  parted  for  the 
night. 

"On  the  following  Sunday  night  I  saw  this  same  man 
in  the  congregation.  (It  was  Rev.  J.  M.  Beasley.)  He 
came  forward  with  open  arms  to  greet  me  and  to  say, 
'Why  did  you  not  tell  me  who  you  were  on  the  train?' 

"The  truth  is,  I  wanted  to  get  my  bearings,  so  I  would 
know  how  to  adjust  myself.  I  never  had  a  better  friend 
than  J.  M.  Beasley.  His  store  was  my  headquarters 
while  I  remained  in  Fayetteville.  Together  we  talked 
over  the  cause;  together  we  often  prayed  and  preached 
in  the  country  churches;  together  we  planned  for  the 
enlargement  of  the  Kingdom.  Few  people  will  ever  know 
what  this  unpretending  man  did  for  the  cause  of  Christ. 
With  his  own  money  largely,  he  built  houses  of  w^orship 
in  destitute  localities  and  supplied  them  v/ith  the  gospel. 
He  traveled  widely  in  his  own  buggy  and  preached  the 
gospel  without  charge  in  many  neighborhoods  where 
Christ  was  not  so  much  as  named.  He  was  enthusiastic 
in  his  work  and  had  the  ability  to  inspire  others  with 
his  spirit.  He  was  easy  of  approach  and  possessed  that 
open-hearted  candor  that  made  him  valuable  as  a  friend 
and  adviser.  At  his  death  there  came  into  my  heart  a 
consciousness  of  real  loss.  And  I  have  never  been  in 
Fayetteville  since  that  I  have  not  missed  him  and 
wished  for  him  as  in  the  days  of  long  ago. 

"My  first  sermon  was  preached  the  second  Sunday  in 
September,  1874.  The  house  of  worship  was  crowded  to 
its  utmost  capacity.  The  text  used  was,  "Blessed  are 
the  pure  in  heart,  for  they  shall  see  God."  A  few  re- 
marks were  made  about  the  beatitudes;  an  effort  was 
made  to  describe  the  pure  in  heart,  and  the  people  were 
told  some  of  the  senses  in  which  the  pure  in  heart  could 


52  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

see  God.  It  was  a  simple  analysis,  with  no  effort  to  be 
deep,  learned  or  profound.  The  sermon  was  written  and 
almost  committed  to  memory — a  rather  hazardous 
method  for  a  young  preacher.  If  my  call  to  the  church 
had  depended  on  my  first  sermon  I  should  probably 
have  never  been  pastor.  I  was  conscious  that  I  was  not 
preaching  a  trial  sermon,  and  here  I  only  aimed  to  begin 
as  I  hoped  to  hold  out.  One  of  the  older  members  told 
me  before  I  preached  not  to  make  the  mistake  of  preach- 
ing my  best  sermon  first.  I  told  him  my  aim  had  always 
been  and  should  always  be  to  do  my  best  under  the  cir- 
cumstances. I  know  even  now,  after  the  expiration  of 
many  years,  no  better  rule  for  the  preacher  to  follow. 

''At  the  conclusion  of  the  sermon  a  host  of  people 
gathered  about  me,  and  in  the  midst  of  their  warm,  fra- 
ternal greetings  I  almost  forgot  that  I  was  a  stranger 
among  them. 

''I  do  not  know  what  impression  was  made  by  the  ser- 
mon, though  some  were  kind  enough  to  express  apprecia- 
tion. I  have  reasons  to  believe,  however,  that  they  were 
not  'specially  taken'  by  my  appearance  in  the  pulpit,  as 
they  went  to  work  quietly  and  furnished  me  an  elegant 
suit  of  clothes  to  be  worn  on  the  next  Sabbath.  Of  course, 
I  submitted.  What  else  could  I  do?  I  was  fresh  from 
the  country  and  unacquainted  with  city  folks  or  city 
customs.  I  must  become  all  things  to  all  men  that  I 
might  win  some.  After  all,  is  there  any  lesson  more 
important  for  the  preacher  to  learn  than  the  lesson  of 
adjustability?  Gradually  I  became  acquainted  with 
the  congregation  and  felt  at  home  among  them. 

'T  found  soon  after  beginning  my  work  that  there  was 
a  debt  on  the  church  and  that  the  house  of  worship  was 
mortgaged.  This  was  to  me  a  source  of  anxiety.  A 
church  debt  is  always  a  troublesome  quantity.     It  is 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  53 

always  in  the  way  when  an  advanced  step  is  proposed. 
Arrangements  were  made  to  begin  the  liquidation  of 
the  debt.  A  'Church  Relief  Society'  was  organized,  made 
up  of  the  young  and  old  people.  This  society  met  once 
a  month  on  Sunday  afternoon.  A  program  was  always 
arranged,  consisting  of  music,  recitations,  essays,  etc. 
The  members  paid  their  dues  and  a  general  collection 
was  taken.  After  a  few  months  the  debt  was  removed 
and  the  people  greatly  encouraged.  The  church  had  no 
baptistry  at  that  time  and  money  was  subscribed  and 
the  work  was  begun.  Soon  after  the  baptistry  was 
placed  in  the  building  a  series  of  meetings  was  held  and 
a  number  of  happy  converts  were  baptized  on  profession 
of  their  faith  in  Christ.  Rev.  C.  Durham,  who  was  a 
classmate  of  the  pastor,  assisted  in  the  meetings.  His 
preaching  and  his  singing  made  a  powerful  impression 
on  the  congregations  that  heard  him. 

''Many  of  the  older  members  of  the  church  were  known 
to  hold  widely  differing  views  on  the  subject  of  election 
and  predestination.  One  of  their  former  pastors  had 
seemed  to  lean  strongly  towards  Arminian  views,  while 
the  other  had  insisted  on  Calvinistic  views  generally  held 
and  believed  by  the  Baptist  people.  These  older  breth- 
ren would  often  meet  and  warmly  discuss  their  differ- 
ences. They  had  their  proofs,  their  Scripture  passages, 
and  were  always  ready  for  a  debate.  I  soon  found  that 
I  would  have  to  make  a  deliverance  from  the  pulpit  on 
these  much  disputed  subjects.  Each  party  was  sure 
that  I  would  champion  his  side  of  the  subject.  I  as- 
siduously avoided  preaching  on  these  subjects  in  a  con- 
clusive way.  Sometimes  I  would  preach  free  agency 
as  if  there  was  no  such  doctrine  as  the  divine  sovereignty ; 
then  I  would  preach  God's  sovereignty  as  if  there 
were  no  such  thing  as  free  agency  taught,  in  the  Scrip- 


54  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

tures.  Both  parties  wanted  to  know  how  I  was  going 
to  reconcile  these  teachigs  on  these  subjects.  I  told 
them  both  were  taught  in  the  Scriptures,  that  I  be- 
lieved both  and  would  not  attempt  to  reconcile  what 
God  had  not  attempted  to  reconcile  in  his  Word. 

"In  a  few  months  they  began  to  realize  that  the  Bible 
deals  largely  with  the  great  practical  duties  of  life.  And 
they  were  willing  for  the  pastor  to  preach  as  he  thought 
best  on  any  and  every  subject.  The  theological  debat- 
ing society  gradually  disbanded,  and  they  vied  with  one 
another  in  their  efforts  to  illustrate  the  great  practical 
principles  of  our  common  Christianity. 

"There  are  some  spots  about  Fayetteville  that  will 
forever  remain  sacredly  enshrined  in  my  memory.  I 
think  of  Hay  Mount,  from  whose  top  I  so  often  caught 
a  view  of  the  valley  of  the  river  and  the  gently  sloping 
hills  that  lay  beyond,  sleeping  in  the  lap  of  beauty.  Here 
were  the  elegant  homes  of  many  good  people,  and  hard 
by  was  the  site  of  the  United  States  Arsenal,  so  rudely 
and  ruthlessly  destroyed  by  Sherman's  army  in  the  clos- 
ing weeks  of  the  Civil  War.  I  think  of  the  historic 
^Cross  Creek,'  where  two  streams  came  together  which 
were  said  by  the  older  people  to  have  crossed  each  other 
in  the  long  ago  without  intermingling  their  waters.  I 
think  of  Liberty  Point,  dear  to  all  genuine  patriots  as 
the  place  where  the  Revolutionary  fathers  met  to  de- 
clare their  independence.  I  think  of  the  cemetery  with 
its  winding  walks,  its  shady  nooks,  its  fragrant  flowers, 
its  peaceful  atmosphere,  its  quaint  inscriptions  on  the 
tombs  where  the  'forefathers  of  the  hamlet  sleep.'  I 
think  of  the  old  buildings  that  stood  in  the  midst  of  the 
streets  of  the  city.  What  tender  memories  of  the  long 
ago  cluster  about  me  as  I  think  of  the  sunset  and  evening 
bell  as  seen  and  heard  from  the  ancient  markethouse 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  55 

in  dear  old  Fayetteville.  Sweet  memories  of  the  river, 
of  the  cool  spring  under  the  wide-spreading  oaks,  the 
bridge  above  the  mill,  where  the  water  sings  softly  on 
its  glad  march  to  the  sea,  come  to  me  o'er  and  o'er  as  I 
make  my  pilgrimage  towards  the  sunset. 

''In  the  summer  of  1877  I  felt  my  health  beginning 
to  fail,  and  my  mind  turned  again  to  the  Piedmont  sec- 
tion of  the  State,  and  I  resigned  my  pastorate  in  Fay- 
etteville." 

His  Winston-Salem  Pastorate 

Dr.  Brown,  as  he  says,  was  disposed  to  return  to  Pied- 
mont, North  Carolina,  because  he  thought  it  would  be 
better  for  his  health.  He  was  now  thirty-one  years  old. 
He  is  described  by  one  who  knew  him  then  as  "quiet, 
slender,  bearded."  Miss  Carrie  Jones  of  Winston-Salem, 
who  was  a  little  girl  when  Dr.  Brown  came  to  Winston- 
Salem,  recalls  that  she  told  her  father  that  the  call  of 
Dr.  Brown  to  the  Baptist  Church  in  Winston  was  risky 
business  because  he  looked  so  delicate.  Yet  during  a 
pastorate  of  forty  years  he  was  not  absent  from  his 
pulpit  on  account  of  sickness  more  than  six  or  eight 
times. 

The  Baptist  Church  in  Winston  and  the  Red  Bank 
Baptist  Church,  ten  miles  out  in  the  country,  were  both 
without  a  pastor  in  1877.  The  two  boards  of  deacons 
had  considered  and  rejected  several  names  of  proposed 
pastors.  At  length,  the  two  boards  without  consulta- 
tion with  each  other  unanimously  called  Dr.  Brown  to 
preach  at  Winston  three  Sundays  a  month  and  at  Red 
Bank  one. 

Long  Pastorate 

The  stoiy  of  Dr.  Brown's  work  as  pastor  forty  years 
of  the  Baptist  Church  in  Winston,  now  the  First  Bap- 


56  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

tist  Church  of  Winston-Salem,  constitutes  the  balance 
of  this  book  and  cannot  be  covered  in  part  of  a  chapter 
or  even  a  whole  chapter.  But  inasmuch  as  his  has  been 
one  of  the  longest  whole-time  pastorates  of  a  city  church 
in  the  annals  of  Southern  Baptist  history,  it  is  well 
here  and  now  to  record  what  Dr.  Brown,  himself,  has 
to  say  about  long  pastorates. 

Staying  Power  of  People 

''In  order  to  promote  permanency  in  the  pastorate 
quite  as  much  depends  upon  the  membership  and  con- 
gregation as  upon  the  pastor  himself.  The  people  must 
have  staying  power  if  the  minister  abides.  If  the  peo- 
ple are  in  an  unsettled  state,  coming  and  going  like 
gypsies,  changing  their  camping  ground,  anything  like 
permanency  in  the  pastoral  relation  is  almost  impossible. 
There  must  be  enough  people  rooted  to  the  soil  to  main- 
tain the  traditions  of  the  church  and  resist  the  dangerous 
innovations  of  the  newcomers,  if  the  pastor  goes  on  year 
after  year  in  increasing  efficiency  in  the  work  of  the 
church.  This  staying,  conservative  element  in  the  church 
will  serve  as  a  wall  of  protection  to  the  pastor  until  his 
plans  shall  mature  and  his  work  shall  blossom  into  prom- 
ise and  fruitfulness.  These  persons  will  be  to  the  pastor 
like  Napoleon's  bodyguard,  a  mighty  reserve  force  for 
effectiveness  in  a  time  of  emergency.  There  are  always 
some  to  tell  how  they  did  things  in  the  Sleepy  Hollow 
Church  and  how  the  pastor  did  down  in  the  old  church 
in  Camden,  or  how  they  used  to  do  in  the  church  just 
across  the  line  in  some  adjacent  State. 

*Tf  there  is  not  a  wall  to  break  the  force  of  this  in- 
coming tide  of  suggestion  the  pastor  and  the  church 
may  be  swept  off  their  feet.    It  is  worth  a  great  deal  to 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  57 

a  poor  pastor,  agitated  by  a  thousand  suggestions  as 
to  how  to  manage  the  church,  to  have  some  good,  level- 
headed members  who  have  had  staying  power  rise  up 
and  say,  'We  have  seen  these  plans  and  suggestions  tried 
in  other  years  and  found  they  did  not  work  in  our  or- 
ganization.' This  lifts  the  burden  from  the  shoulders 
of  the  pastor  and  prevents  his  coming  into  antagonism 
with  men  and  measures  that  would  mean  strife  and  di- 
vision with  reference  to  him. 

"I  have  been  pastor  of  a  single  church  for  thirty-two 
years  (it  continued  eight  years  longer)  and  more,  but  I 
am  confident  it  would  have  been  necessary  for  me  to 
have  'packed  my  grip'  and  moved  to  pastures  new  sev- 
eral times  if  I  had  not  had  members  with  staying  powers 
who  moulded  the  policy  of  the  church  and  relieved  the 
pastor  of  many  an  embarrassing  situation. 

Co-operation  Among  Members 

'To  bring  about  permanency  there  must  be  co-opera- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  membership.  They  must  be 
willing  to  wait  for  time  to  develop  pastors  and  churches. 
They  must  not  'get  down  with  the  fever'  for  a  change 
of  methods  and  pastors  every  time  the  east  wind  blows. 
Much  friendy  counsel,  sympathy  and  forbearance  are 
necessary  if  a  pastor  continues  his  labors  through  a  long 
succession  of  years.  No  one  is  more  conscious  of  mis- 
takes than  he  is,  no  one  grieves  over  them  more  than  he 
does,  and  no  one  tries  harder  always  to  do  and  say  the 
right  thing  in  the  right  way  at  the  right  times  than  he. 
Alas,  he  belongs  to  an  imperfect  tribe.  He  is  a  man  of 
like  passions,  encompassed  with  the  same  sort  of  infirmi- 
ties that  so  often  embarrass  other  men. 


58  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

^'He  is  not  as  wise  as  Solomon,  as  good  as  Barnabas, 
as  logical  as  Paul,  as  eloquent  as  Apollos,  or  as  patient 
as  Job.  He  is  a  plain,  blunt  man,  it  may  be,  who  speaks 
right  on  and  loves  his  friends  and  wants  to  please  his 
Master  most  of  all.  If  his  people  love  him,  believe  in 
him,  and  stand  by  him,  he  will  grow  stronger  and  more 
widely  useful  the  longer  he  stays  with  them.  His  advice 
will  be  more  sought  after,  his  visits  will  be  more  wel- 
comed, his  prayers  will  be  more  enjoyed,  and  his  ser- 
mons will  be  more  appreciated.  It  is  wonderful  how 
many  allowances  people  will  make  for  their  pastor  if 
they  only  love  him.  It  is  amazing  what  poor  preaching 
they  will  sometimes  'put  up  with'  if  they  only  trust  him. 
Love  hides  a  multitude  of  faults;  charity  thinks  no  evil. 

''If  churches  desire  permanency  in  the  pastoral  rela- 
tion let  them  remember  that  pastors  are  human  and 
liable  to  err;  let  them  love  them,  notwithstanding  their 
imperfections,  and  co-operate  with  them  in  the  spirit  of 
harmony.  Let  them  think  of  the  Scriptural  injunction, 
'Obey  them  that  have  the  rule  over  you,  and  submit 
yourselves;  for  they  watch  for  your  soul,  as  they  that 
must  give  account,  that  they  may  do  it  with  joy,  and 
not  with  grief;  for  that  is  unprofitable  to  you'." 

Staying  Power  of  Pastor 

But  to  promote  permanency  in  the  pastorate,  the  pas- 
tor himself  must  play  a  conspicuous  part.  He  must 
have  staying  power.  It  is  not  well  to  take  a  field 
simply  as  an  experiment.  The  Lord's  work  is  too  serious 
and  important  to  be  experimented  with.  When  a  pas- 
tor accepts  a  field,  he  should  enter  upon  it  with  the 
solemn  purpose  of  making  it  the  greatest  success  pos- 
sible under  his  leadership.    To  enter  upon  a  work  sim- 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  59 

ply  as  a  springboard  to  get  into  a  larger  place  is  un- 
worthy of  any  true  man  and  an  insult  to  the  people  on 
whom  the  imposition  is  practiced.  Such  methods  as  this 
have  had  much  to  do  with  making  many  of  our  churches 
experiment  stations.  Brother  W.  R.  Gwaltney  used  to 
say  that  some  men  entered  upon  their  pastorate  with 
one  foot  lifted  up  ready  to  jump  into  another  place  as 
soon  as  the  opportunity  presented  itself. 

^^Many  pastors  have  found  by  sad  experience  that  they 
do  not  always  better  their  conditions  by  a  change  of 
fields.  I  know  there  is  a  sort  of  fascination  about  the 
thought  of  beginning  new  work  under  changed  condi- 
tions. Distance  lends  enchantment  to  the  view.  'Hope 
springs  eternal  in  the  human  breast,  man  never  is  but 
always  to  be  blest.' 

"Our  hopes  do  not  materialize.  We  have  seen  our 
fondest  hopes  decay.  It  is  not  best  to  move  away  from 
a  field  because  it  is  difficult.  There  are  no  rosy  fields 
for  consecrated,  devoted  pastors.  Each  field  has  its  trials, 
its  problems,  its  seemingly  unsurmountable  difficulties. 
But  somebody  must  beard  the  lion  in  his  den,  somebody 
must  face  the  situation,  somebody  must  lay  down  his 
life  in  every  place  for  Jesus  Christ,  and  who  knows  but 
that  we  have  come  to  the  Kingdom  for  such  a  time  as 
this.  There  is  such  a  thing  as  jumping  out  of  the  frying 
pan  into  the  fire.  And  it  may  be  better  to  endure  the 
ills  that  we  have  than  to  fly  to  what  we  know  not  of. 
It  is  the  part  of  good  judgment  to  look  before  we  leap. 

"I  know  a  pastor  who  had  a  difficult  field  and  he  re- 
ceived a  telegram  from  another  church,  offering  him 
just  twice  what  he  was  receiving.  It  was  a  tempta- 
tion, but  he  said,  'Some  man  must  put  his  life-blood  into 
this  work  here  if  it  succeeds.  Why  should  I  not  do  it?' 
He  declined  the  call  and  it  proved  the  best  step  of  his 


60  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

life.  The  members  to  a  man  rallied  around  him  and 
they  all  worked  and  suffered  together.  The  church  be- 
came his  joy  and  crown. 


Acceptable  Preaching 

"li  we  have  permanency  in  the  pastorate,  the  preacher 
must  preach  acceptably  to  the  people.  Long  pastorates 
are  generally  characterized  by  good  average  preaching. 
Such  men  as  Cuyler,  John  Hall,  Spurgeon,  and  Maclaren 
held  their  pastorates  through  long  years  because  they 
gave  the  people  something  to  think  about  and  enjoy. 
Sheep  will  continue  to  follow  the  shepherd  if  he  leads 
them  into  fresh  pastures  and  supplies  their  oft-recurring 
needs.  The  saints  will  gladly  turn  their  feet  to  the 
places  where  their  spirits  are  refreshed.  Even  men  of 
ordinary  ability  may  stay  with  their  people  a  long  time 
if  they  study  human  nature,  adjust  their  themes  to  the 
demands  of  the  times,  and  preach  the  gospel  with  the 
Holy  Ghost  sent  down  from  heaven. 


Keeping  Up  With  Times 

"It  is  not  a  new  gospel  that  the  people  want,  but  the 
old  gospel  in  new  forms  of  thought.  They  want  old 
truths  dressed  in  new  garments. 

^'The  man  who  would  stay  long  must  cater  to  the 
needs  of  his  particular  generation.  The  man  who  is 
out  of  gear  with  his  own  times  cannot  interest  others.' 
The  gospel  has  its  special  message  to  reach  successive 
generations.  It  adjusts  itself  to  the  demands  of  the 
rolling  centuries.  It  is  said  of  a  great  Scotch  preacher 
that  he  stood  always  at  the  foot  of  the  cross,  but  from 
that  center  he  swept  the  circumference  of  active  life. 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  61 

The  abiding  pastor  cannot  continue  to  preach  the  same 
sermons  he  preached  twenty  years  ago  because  there  are 
conditions  to  which  the  gospel  must  be  applied  that  had 
no  existence  then.  To  attain  unto  permanency,  then, 
let  pastors  study  variety,  adaptation,  illustration,  the 
changing  order  of  things,  that  they  may  not  lose  touch 
with  the  moving  procession. 

Visitation 

''Much  attention  must  be  given  to  private  visitation, 
if  a  pastor  is  to  become  a  fixture  in  any  community. 
It  is  the  personal  touch  that  glues  pastor  and  people 
together.  No  amount  of  pulpit  brilliancy  will  hold  a 
congregation  together  through  the  years  without  much 
contact  with  them  in  their  homes.  'Congregations  are 
built  up  externally  by  thorough  pastoral  work,  and  then 
they  are  built  up  internally  by  a  thorough  setting  forth 
of  Bible  truth.  It  is  one  thing  to  attract  a  gaping  crowd 
to  witness  a  display  of  pulpit  fireworks;  it  is  quite  an- 
other thing  to  attract  and  hold  attentive  listeners  to  the 
gospel  of  life.  People  do  not  get  greatly  interested  in 
preaching  until  they  become  interested  in  the  man  who 
does  the  preaching.  One  good  man  said  once  he  always 
enjoyed  the  sermon  more  on  Sunday  if  he  had  had  a 
warm  handshake  with  the  preacher  during  the  week  be- 
fore. The  more  families  a  pastor  can  tie  to  himself  and 
the  church  through  visitation  and  personal  attention,  the 
more  secure  and  permanent  the  relation  becomes.  'The 
good  shepherd  calleth  his  own  sheep  by  name  and  lead- 
eth  them  out.  A  stranger  will  they  not  follow  for  they 
know  not  the  voice  of  strangers.'  Let  a  pastor  become 
thoroughly  imbedded  in  the  affections  of  all  the  people, 


62  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

and  the  gates  of  hell  cannot  prevail  against  him  in  that 
community. 

Soul  Winner 

"Every  pastor  should  strive  to  be  a  soul  winner.  Every 
person  won  for  Christ  and  baptized  into  the  fellowship 
of  the  church  and  trained  for  service  during  his  pastor- 
ate becomes  an  additional  cord  to  make  the  relation 
permanent.  He  may  be  all  the  while  lengthening  the 
cords  and  strengthening  the  stakes  of  his  pastorate. 
As  the  young  people  grow  to  maturity  and  are  married 
by  him  and  the  sorrowing  relatives  are  comforted  by  his 
ministry,  the  bonds  that  bind  pastor  and  people  together 
grow  stronger  and  stronger. 

Careful  About  Debts 

"If  a  pastor  would  tarry  long  with  his  people,  he  must 
not  contract  debts  that  he  cannot  pay.  Better  suffer  for 
bread  than  lose  his  influence  through  repeated  failure 
to  meet  financial  obligations.  Let  him  avoid  taking  an 
active  part  in  partisan  politics.  Let  him  be  courteous 
and  considerate  to  all.  Let  him  be  an  example  unto  the 
believers — wise  as  serpents  and  harmless  as  doves — and 
he  will  finish  his  course  with  joy  and  the  ministry  which 
he  has  received  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 

"There  comes  a  time  in  every  pastor's  life  when  he 
should  change  or  surrender  his  pastorate.  He  should 
be  in  a  position  to  decide  when  that  time  comes.  I  once 
asked  Brother  J.  H.  Mills  how  long  a  pastor  should  re- 
main on  a  field.  He  replied,  'When  they  persecute  you 
in  one  city,  flee  to  another.'  When  by  reason  of  age  or 
infirmity  the  pastor  becomes  unable  to  do  the  work  that 
needs  to  be  done  he  should  surrender.    The  Kingdom  of 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  63 

God  in  any  community  is  more  to  be  considered  than  any 
man,  however  popular  and  useful  he  may  have  been  in 
the  years  that  have  passed. 

"Dr.  Gambrell  says  pastors  are  divided  into  three 
classes — the  builders,  the  setters  and  the  splitters.  Don't 
be  a  setter;  don't  be  a  splitter;  be  a  builder,  and  you 
may  stay  as  long  as  you  ought  to  stay." 

Speaking  on  one  of  the  anniversaries  of  Dr.  Brown's 
long  pastorate,  Bishop  Rondthaler  said:  "I  have  some- 
times wondered  where  Dr.  Brown  would  have  been  by 
this  time  if  he  had  been  one  of  those  hasty  reformers 
whom  I  have  seen  here.  When  a  man  begins  to  hurry 
reforms  he  is  likely,  ere  long,  to  move  somewhere  else. 
I  have  imagined  two  men  meeting  on  the  street.  One 
would  say,  'Do  you  remember  Dr.  Brown,  the  former 
pastor  of  this  place?'  The  other  would  say,  'Yes,  I  re- 
member him;  he  preached  in  the  First  Baptist  Church.' 
I  imagine  the  first  speaker  saying,  'I  saw  him  sometime 
ago  and  then  I  heard  of  his  being  in  Montgomery,  Ala- 
bama, and  then  of  his  making  things  hot  in  Arkansas, 
and  he  has  now  gone  to  California.'  Something  of  a 
wanderer  of  this  sort  my  dear  brother  would  have  been 
if  he  had  not  settled  down  from  the  outset,  determined 
that  he  would  be  a  preacher  of  the  gospel  and  to  be  in 
the  community  in  which  God  had  placed  him.  And  I 
can  imagine  a  different  conversation.  Two  people  meet- 
ing each  other  along  our  street,  one  says,  'Do  you  re- 
member Dr.  Brown?'  The  other  says,  'Dr.  Brown? 
How  could  I  ever  forget  him?  Why,  when  our  baby 
died  and  when  we  were  rebellious  against  God  in  our 
great  affliction,  Dr.  Brown  came  and  talked  with  us  about 
God's  loving  ways  even  in  the  midst  of  darkness.  Dr. 
Brown!  I  cannot  forget  him  as  long  as  I  live.'  There 
is  where  the  difference  comes  in.     And  that  is  what  I 


64  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

like  him  for;  because  he  has  gone  in  and  out  among  the 
poor  and  troubled  and  the  bereaved  and  the  sick  and 
dying.  He  preaches  the  gospel  on  Sundays  and  in  the 
week  he  visits  the  families  with  reference  to  the  gospel 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

His  Pastorate  Emeritus 

Immediately  after  his  resignation  as  pastor  of  the 
First  Baptist  Church  of  Winston-Salem  in  1917,  Dr. 
Brown  was  unanimously  elected  pastor  emeritus  of  all 
the  Baptist  churches  of  that  city.  This  was  meant  to  be 
a  graceful  but  not  an  empty  compliment.  Every  Bap- 
tist church  in  and  around  the  city  was  an  offshoot  of  the 
First  Church.  The  older  members  of  every  one  of  them 
had  once  been  members  of  Dr.  Brown's  congregation. 
They  all  felt  that  he  was  still  in  a  real  sense  their  pas- 
tor. So,  after  1917,  Dr.  Brown  visited  and  frequently 
preached  in  the  different  Baptist  churches  until  a  slight 
stroke  of  paralysis  in  the  pulpit  of  the  First  Baptist 
Church  in  1918,  from  which  he  soon  recovered  com- 
pletely, made  his  physicians  advise  against  his  preach- 
ing. Since  then  he  has  continued  to  attend  the  preach- 
ing and  prayer  meeting  services  and  occasionally  leads  in 
prayer.  During  these  eight  years  of  his  pastorate  emeri- 
tus his  counsel  and  advice  have  been  sought  and  obtained 
on  all  matters  of  interest  to  the  Baptist  churches  of  the 
city.  He  has  advised  about  the  location  of  the  new 
churches.  To  him  have  been  brought  vexatious  problems 
of  church  discipline,  and  his  advice  has  been  accepted 
as  final. 

His  Home  Life 

This  account  of  the  simple  life  that  Dr.  Brown  has 
led  for  nearly  seventy-nine  years  would  not  be  complete 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  65 

without  a  reference  to  his  home  life.  It  has  been  beau- 
tiful in  every  way.  Speaking  of  leaving  Fayetteville  to 
accept  the  pastorate  in  Winston,  Dr.  Brown  said,  "But 
my  heart  was  still  there,  for  I  had  left  the  woman  with 
the  golden  hair  who  was  destined  to  be  my  companion 
for  life,  the  one  on  whom  I  have  been  more  dependent 
than  on  any  other  for  whatever  of  success  and  happiness 
has  come  to  me.  I  can  now  see  some  reasons  why  I  was 
strangely  guided  to  Fayetteville."  Mrs.  Brown,  who  was 
Miss  Julia  Cain  of  Fayetteville,  was  the  ideal  pastor's 
wife— cheerful,  tactful,  practical,  the  complement  of  her 
husband.  As  Struthers  Burt  says  of  the  hero's  mother  in 
''The  In^  rpreter's  House,"  ''He  had  never  known  his 
mother,  •  ,it  in  the  figure  of  his  father  he  had  long  ago 
recognized  one-half  of  a  perpetual  love  affair;  a  mutual 
decision  unshakable  by  death  or  separation.  The  living 
half  of  what  had  been  an  intimate,  untalkative  union, 
continuous  and  satisfying."  Mrs.  Brown  died  in  1914 
after  a  lingering  illness  in  the  midst  of  which  she  re- 
mained cheerful  unto  the  last.  One  who  knew  Mrs. 
Brown  intimately  in  her  home  life  says  of  her:  "Never 
did  a  pastor  have  a  better  co-worker  than  he  who  is  left 
to  continue  life's  journey  without  his  long-time  counsel- 
lor and  helper.  The  sad  notes  of  human  suffering  touched 
her  open  ears  with  a  peculiar  power.  She  was  known 
as  a  bearer  of  oil  and  wine  to  the  stricken  about  her.  Her 
home  was  a  haven  of  rest  for  God's  am.bassadors.  The 
upper  chamber  was  ever  ready.  Many  a  wayworn  trav- 
eler has  found  peace  and  refreshing  within  those  walls. 
The  glorious  optimism  of  faith,  the  inspiring  outlook  of 
hope,  and  the  gracious  heartswell  of  charity  were  hap- 
pily blended  in  her  rich  life." 

Another  who  knew  her  equally  well  in  her   church 
life  said  of  her  on  the  tenth  anniversary  of  her  death, 


66  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

''While  he  worked  upon  the  field  she  labored  in  the  home. 
While  he  dispensed  spiritual  advices  and  comforts,  she 
dispensed  hospitality.  W^hile  he  preached  the  gospel 
from  the  pulpit,  she  taught  many  in  the  Sunday  school. 
Her  womanly  and  friendly  greetings  were  extended  to 
every  part  of  our  church  life.  Many  of  us  to  this  day 
still  look  for  her  in  her  usual  place  near  the  door,  where 
she  greeted  and  welcomed  almost  every  one  who  came 
to  the  house  of  worship." 

A  short  article  by  Dr.  Brown  entitled  ''The  Story  of 
the  Clock  that  Stopped,"  in  the  Biblical  Recorder  gives 
such  an  accurate  pen  picture  of  his  own  home  life  that 
I  quote  it  in  full: 

"Many  years  ago  two  young  people  were  happily  mar- 
ried, and  among  the  gifts  sent  in  by  friends  was  a  family 
clock.  It  was  not,  like  other  presents  received  on  such 
occasions,  laid  aside  and  in  the  course  of  time  forgotten. 
It  remained  through  many  years  to  render  faithful  ser- 
vice. It  had  a  place  on  the  mantel  in  the  first  little  room 
occupied  as  a  home  by  this  young  couple.  All  through 
the  'honeymoon,'  when  every  word  was  seasoned  with 
affection  and  every  glance  of  the  eye  revealed  love  in 
the  heart,  when  music  was  in  the  house  and  every  pros- 
pect was  pleasing,  when  the  birds  were  singing  in  the 
trees,  and  the  stars  were  shining  in  the  night,  the  clock 
in  the  room  struck  off  the  hours  as  the  happy  days  went 

by. 

"As  the  months  went  on,  a  new  home  was  entered  and 
it  was  all  their  own — the  dearest  place  on  earth  to  them. 
And  among  the  sacred  furnishings  was  the  clock  to  oc- 
cupy its  place,  from  which  it  would  mark  off  the  hours 
for  them  through  the  coming  years.  After  a  time,  the 
first  baby  came  into  the  home,  with  laughing  eyes  and  a 
radiant  face,  and  the  loving  mother  watched  tenderly 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  67 

over  it  through  many  a  night  while  the  clock  was  strik- 
ing the  hours.  In  the  course  of  the  years  other  chil- 
dren came  to  romp  and  play  and  sing  in  the  home,  and 
then  stand  and  watch  while  the  Viands'  on  the  dial  went 
slowly  around,  that  they  might  count  while  the  clock 
was  striking  the  hour.  They  soon  became  very  fond  of 
it.  It  was  their  companion  and  friend  and  'company'  for 
them  when  the  parents  were  not  in  the  room.  They  be- 
lieved it  almost  infallible.  Other  watches  might  go 
wrong,  other  clocks  might  fail,  and  even  the  big  town 
clock  might  not  keep  up  with  sun,  but  their  clock  was 
always  right.  It  kept  the  time  for  them  to  go  to  bed  at 
night  and  to  rise  in  the  morning,  to  leave  for  school  and 
to  return  in  the  evening. 

'When  sickness  was  in  the  family  and  the  doctor  came 
to  ask  all  sorts  of  questions,  to  look  at  the  tongue,  take 
the  temperature,  and  write  the  prescription,  the  clock 
must  be  depended  on  to  keep  the  time  for  taking  the 
medicine.  It  was  always  consulted  for  the  arrival  of  the 
train  and  for  its  departure  when  they  wished  to  visit 
friends  in  distant  cities.  The  clock  was  the  only  mem- 
ber of  the  family  that  did  not  complain,  did  not  lose  its 
temper,  did  not  act  ugly  when  the  weather  changed. 
Other  faces  changed  but  its  face  was  always  the  same. 
The  silver  threads  came  into  mother's  hair,  and  the 
wrinkles  came  on  father's  face,  but  the  clock  never 
seemed  to  grow  old.  Its  voice  never  changed,  but  rang 
out  like  a  silver  bell,  and  its  familiar  'tick-tock'  was  like 
the  soft  dropping  of  the  rain  in  the  darkness  of  the 
night. 

"But  sad  changes  came  in  the  home,  as  they  always 
do,  sometime  and  somewhere,  in  the  history  of  every 
family.  Mother  was  sick  unto  death,  and  while  the  loved 
ones  stood  silently  by,  the  clock  marked  off  the  anxious 


68  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

hours.  The  end  came  at  length.  The  angels  came  for 
her  and  bore  her  away  to  the  home  of  the  blest.  And 
the  clock  stopped. 

"We  could  not  persuade  it  to  continue  its  work.  It 
seemed  to  say,  The  time  has  come  for  silence  and  rest/ 
We  took  it  to  the  jeweler  and  he  examined  it  and  said, 
'There  does  not  seem  to  be  anything  wrong  with  it,  but 
it  just  will  not  run.'  It  stands  silent  and  still,  there  on 
the  mantel  in  the  room  where  the  husband  and  father 
sleeps.  It  has  been  the  silent  witness  of  many  transac- 
tions in  the  home,  but  it  has  revealed  no  family  secrets. 
A  thousand  tender  memories  cluster  about  it.  No  money 
would  buy  it,  for  it  is  more  precious  than  silver  and 
gold.  No  rude  hand  must  touch  it,  for  it  is  more  valu- 
able than  rubies,  rt  is  still  standing  there — ^the  old 
family  clock — motionless  and  quiet  since  the  'dear  one' 
v/ent  av/ay  to  the  heavenly  home  to  wait  for  the  coming 
of  our  feet." 

Dr.  Brown  had  an  only  son  named  Wingate.  He  was 
a  youth  of  promise.  After  completing  his  education  at 
Wake  Forest,  he  entered  business  with  the  prospect  of  a 
bright  future.  But  in  1916  he  was  stricken  down  -sud- 
denly while  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia  on  business. 

Dr.  Brown  is  now  spending  his  last  days  in  the  home 
of  his  younger  daughter,  Mrs.  H.  S.  Stokes,  in  Winston- 
Salem.  Next  door  lives  his  elder  daughter,  Mrs.  W.  0. 
McCorkle.  There,  surrounded  by  his  children  and  grand- 
children, two  of  the  latter  bearing  his  name— Henry 
Brown  McCorkle  and  Henry  Brown  Stokes — he  may  be 
seen  sitting  on  the  front  porch  gazing  ''westward  out  to 
sea,"  waiting,  as  he  says,  for  the  sound  of  the  boatman's 
oar.  In  passing  it  may  be  observed  that  in  Winston- 
Salem,  it  is  said,  the  number  of  "Henry  Browns"  is 
greater  than  the  combined  namesakes  of  the  Presidents 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  69 

of  the  United  States  from  Washington  to  Coolidge. 
''Many  old  people,"  he  says,  "make  themselves  miserable 
and  others  miserable  as  well  by  always  imagining  that 
they  are  in  somebody's  way.  They  do  not  realize  that 
they  may  be  in  the  home  as  a  benediction  to  the  grand- 
children, and  inspiration  to  the  parents,  a  comfort  to  the 
weary  and  sick,  and  a  welcome  presence  to  visiting 
friends.  The  promises  of  God  come  home  to  the  old  like 
the  sweet  breath  of  the  springtime." 

Thus  he  speaks  of  the  eventide  of  life:  'Tt  is  given  to 
some  of  the  saints  of  God,  after  their  strenuous  work 
is  over,  to  wait  quietly  while  the  sun  is  going  down. 
What  an  inspiration  these  'waiting  ones'  are  to  their 
companions  who  have  not  traveled  so  far  on  life's  pil- 
grimage, or  shared  the  same  experience.  What  a  bene- 
diction to  hear  of  battles  long  since  won,  and  of  fruits 
that  have  ripened  and  mellowed  with  age,  and  of  hopes 
that  have  become  settled  and  fixed,  and  of  prosperity 
that  has  given  men  radiant  hope  with  each  advancing 
stage!  It  is  worth  while  to  wait  if  by  so  doing  we  may 
be  revealers  of  God's  will,  interpreters  of  his  providence, 
and  sharers  of  those  richer  joys  which  come  to  those 
who  have  reached  the  high  tablelands  of  faith  and  ex- 
perience. 

"There  are  many  now  who  quietly  wait  and  rest  at 
the  sunset's  hours,  while  a  thousand  tender  memories  of 
those  'loved  and  lost  awhile'  come  trooping  through  their 
minds.  They  think  of  many  a  Bethany,  where  quiet 
evenings  were  spent  in  communion  with  those  they  loved. 
They  go  over  again  in  thought  the  seeds  they  sowed, 
the  fields  they  cultivated,  the  harvests  they  gathered. 
They  think  of  influences  they  started,  which  were  des- 
tined to  girdle  the  earth. 


70  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

"The  retrospect  may  be  pleasant  to  those  who  are 
waiting,  but  the  prospect  is  glorious.  Paul  said,  'I  am 
now  ready  to  be  offered.  I  have  fought  a  good  fight,  I 
have  kept  the  faith.'  That  was  the  restrospect.  But 
how  joyful  was  the  prospect!  'Henceforth  there  is  laid 
up  for  me  a  crown  of  righteousness  and  not  for  me  only, 
but  for  all  them  who  love  his  appearing!'  There  are 
visions  of  better  things  to  those  who  wait.  There  are 
sweet  drawings  to  the  better  land  for  those  who  are 
waiting,  like  the  soft  South  winds  that  hasten  the  ship 
to  the  shore.  They  have  a  desire  to  depart  and  be  with 
Christ,  which  is  far  better.  They  'would  not  live  al- 
ways, they  ask  not  to  stay.'  They  are  like  those  who 
are  ready  to  move  and  have  sent  their  furniture  ahead. 
In  visions  of  enraptured  thought  they  see,  while  they 
wait,  the  wide-open  gates  through  which  they  may  enter 
'the  home  of  the  blest.'  There  are  loving  hands  that 
beckon  them  from  out  the  ivory  palaces.  They  are  not 
tired  of  watching  and  waiting,  but  should  the  summons 
come,  they  would  hasten  away  as  school  boys  do  when 
the  day  is  done." 

In  the  events  of  this  simple  life  is  not  to  be  found, 
we  are  quite  sure,  the  reason  why  Dr.  Brown  is  the  pastor 
beloved.  In  a  sense  his  life  has  been  uneventful.  Many 
another  has,  to  all  outward  appearances,  lived  very  much 
the  same  life  as  he.  In  the  annals  of  secular  history  his 
record  is  brief — a  country  boy,  a  brave  young  soldier, 
a  Baptist  minister,  holding  but  two  pastorates  over  a 
period  of  fifty  years.  He  must  live,  and  he  will  live, 
throughout  succeeding  generations,  not  because  he  did 
much  that  is  suitable  for  record  in  history,  but  because 
he  lived  in  such  a  way  as  to  influence  the  lives  of  other 
men.  Though  we  have  in  the  self-revelations  of  the  man 
in  the  quotations  I  have  given  in  this  chapter  an  inkling 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  71 

of  the  reason  why  he  is  the  pastor  beloved,  we  must 
pursue  still  further  our  study  of  his  character  if  we 
would  really  know  the  pastor  beloved. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  WISE  LEADER 

''Remember  them  which  have  the  rule  over  you,  who  have 
spoken  unto  you  the  word  of  God:  whose  faith  follow,  consider- 
ing the  end  of  their  conversation."  Hebrews  xiii:  7. 

The  leadership  of  Dr.  Brown  throughout  a  period  of 
half  a  century,  from  the  beginning  of  the  Fayetteville 
pastorate  in  1874,  is  proved  by  results  achieved  rather 
than  by  any  claims  to  leadership  made  by  or  for  him. 
Yet,  as  will  be  seen,  he  has  been  a  leader — a  leader  in 
his  local  church,  in  his  city,  in  his  State,  in  his  denomi- 
nation. But  he  has  led,  not  because  he  has  desired  or 
tried  to  lead,  but  because  his  wisdom  has  made  others 
look  to  him  for  leadership. 

Leader  in  His  Church 

When  Dr.  Brown  came  to  Winston  in  1877  there  were 
but  fifty  Baptists  in  the  two  towns  of  Winston  and  Sa- 
lem. As  he  says,  ''Our  people  were  plain,  good  people, 
but  they  did  not  claim  for  themselves  financial  strength, 
social  prestige,  or  intellectual  superiority."  Winston  was 
still  a  mission  point.  Rev.  F.  M.  Jordan  had  traveled 
once  a  month  from  near  Hillsboro  to  preach  in  the  court- 
house and  later  in  the  schoolhouse.  The  church  build- 
ing, started  before  Dr.  Brown  came  to  Winston,  was  not 
finished  or  furnished.  When  completed  it  was  a  one- 
room  brick  building  40  by  60  feet.  Besides,  the  little 
congregation   was   cumbered  with   a   building   debt   of 

[  72] 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  73 

$500— a  burden  that  was  heavier  by  far  than  one  an 
hundred  times  as  big  would  be  to  the  present  congrega- 
tion. There  was  no  Sunday-school  room,  no  baptistry, 
no  furnace,  no  organ.    The  pastor's  salary  was  $325  per 

year. 

Now,  see  how  the  new  pastor,  ''quiet,  slender, 
beared,"  young  man  of  thirty-one,  in  his  own  way,  went 
about  leading  his  little  flock  into  larger  things.  The 
congregation,  itself,  needed  enlarging.  "During  the  first 
year,"  he  says,  "a  visiting  committee,  composed  of  three 
ladies,  was  appointed,  and  these  good  women  reported 
having  visited  many  families.  As  a  result  of  this  work 
the  Sunday  school  and  congregation  were  largely  in- 
creased." 

He  wished  to  pay  off  the  church  debt.  "A  committee 
was  appointed  to  pay  part  of  the  church  debt.  They 
agreed  to  pay  $200.00.  They  adopted  a  novel  plan. 
Each  member  pledged  himself  or  herself  for  a  certain 
amount.    Of  course,  they  succeeded." 

He  had  need  of  a  baptistry.  'The  members  up  to  this 
time  had  been  baptized  in  Belo's  Pond.  It  was  a  difficult 
task  to  build  the  baptistry,  and  the  church  did  not  feel 
willing  to  undertake  it,  but  some  members  assumed  the 
responsibility,  and  went  to  work  and  erected  it." 

He  needed  an  organ  for  the  church.  The  pastor  ap- 
pointed a  number  of  little  girls  to  secure  funds  for  this 
purpose.  They  were  very  enthusiastic  and  soon  had  the 
money  in  hand.  But  there  were  some  of  the  members 
who  were  opposed  to  the  organ  being  used  for  church 
services,  and  when  it  was  used  for  the  first  time  they 
went  out  of  the  church.  But  they  soon  became  reconciled 
and  everything  moved  on  smoothly." 

The  next  step  was  for  the  church  to  cease  to  be  a  bene- 
ficiary of  the  State  Mission  Board.     Without  ado  the 


74  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

church  declined  to  accept  any  more  aid  from  the  board, 
greatly  increased  its  contribution  to  missions,  called  the 
pastor  for  his  whole  time  and  substantially  raised  his 
salary. 

By  1888  the  church  had  outgrown  its  quarters.  A 
committee  was  appointed  to  recommend  the  changes  to 
be  made.  They  were  made  and  paid  for  and  the  work 
continued  to  progress. 

In  1898  the  cornerstone  of  a  new  church  building  was 
laid  and  in  due  course  the  building  completed. 

Thus  quietly,  without  show,  and  without  apparent  ef- 
fort, Dr.  Brown  led  his  people  on  to  larger  things.  So 
quietly  did  he  lead  them  that  they  were  scarcely  con- 
scious of  being  led. 

In  1877,  as  I  have  already  said,  there  were  only  fifty 
Baptists  in  Winston  and  Salem.  Thirty  years  later  there 
were  670  members  of  the  First  Baptist  Church,  and  by 
1917,  when  Dr.  Brown  retired,  six  other  Baptist  churches 
had  been  established  in  Winston-Salem  whose  members 
were  drawn  largely  from  the  First  Baptist  Church. 

The  growth  in  grace  of  giving  kept  apace  the  growth 
in  numbers.  In  1877  the  Baptist  Church  in  Winston 
was  contributing  $8.00  per  year  to  all  objects  of  benevo- 
lence; in  1917  it  contributed  $3,461.68. 

The  growth  in  influence  of  the  First  Baptist  Church 
under  Dr.  Brown's  leadership  was  equally  noteworthy. 
In  1877  the  Baptist  Church  in  Winston  was  in  such  dis- 
favor with  Baptists  even,  on  account  of  prejudices  that 
had  been  aroused,  that  one  of  the  leading  Baptists  in  the 
section  would  not  give  his  approval  to  the  church  even 
to  the  extent  of  attending  its  services.  Yet  in  1881,  five 
years  after  Dr.  Brown  became  pastor,  the  Baptist  State 
Convention  met  in  Winston  for  the  first  time.  'The 
people  of  Winston  and  Salem,  without  regard  to  denomi- 


In  1909  the  name  of  Broad  Street  Baptist  Church  in  Winston 
was  changed  to  Brown  Memorial.  Dr.  Brown's  comment,  so 
characteristic  of  him,  was:  "The  Broad  Street  Church  proposes 
to  build  a  beautiful  house  of  worship  in  memory  of  my  life  and 
labors.  It  is  a  graceful  thing  for  them  to  do,  but  an  honor 
unsought  by  me." 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  75 

nations,  threw  open  their  doors  to  the  delegates  and  visi- 
tors," remarks  Dr.  Brown,  as  if  this  fraternity  among 
the  brethren  of  different  denominations  was  a  new  thing. 
To-day,  a  former  fellow-pastor,  as  already  quoted,  gives 
Dr.  Brown's  ''broad  and  fraternal  attitude  to  his  breth- 
ren of  other  churches"  credit  for  the  remarkable  spirit 
of  unity  which  characterizes  the  churches  of  Winston- 
Salem. 

During  the  last  years  of  Dr.  Brown's  pastorate  steps 
were  taken  to  erect  a  new  house  of  worship,  which,  when 
completed,  will  be  one  of  the  handsomest  church  edi- 
fices in  the  South.  The  building  is  being  done  under 
the  pastorate  of  Dr.  J.  R.  Jester.  It  is  a  far  crj^  from 
the  unfurnished  little  building  in  1877  when  the  young 
pastor,  Henry  Brown,  preached  to  a  congregation  that 
barely  required  half  a  dozen  seats,  to  the  handsome 
building  in  1925  that  will  accommodate  sixteen  hundred 
people.  Yet  the  leadership  of  Dr.  Brown  during  the 
years  of  beginning  made  possible  all  that  is  being  ac- 
complished now.    His  spirit  goes  marching  on. 

Leader  in  His  City 

Prior  to  1870  there  was  not  a  Baptist  in  Winston. 
About  that  time  Mr.  Alfred  Holland,  with  his  family, 
moved  to  Winston  from  Smithfield  in  Johnston  County. 
In  Brown  Memorial  Church  is  a  window  memorial  to 
Mr.  Holland  as  the  first  Baptist  to  settle  in  Winston- 
Salem. 

Rev.  F.  M.  Jordan,  who  recently  died  at  the  ripe  old 
age  of  ninety-odd  years,  then  a  missionary  under  the 
State  Board,  stationed  near  Hillsboro,  organized  the  Bap- 
tist Church  in  Winston  September  22,  1871.  Soon  there- 
after a  lot  was  purchased  and  arrangements  made  for 


76  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

the  building  of  a  Baptist  church.  It  is  said  that  Rev. 
Mr.  Jordan  walked  the  streets  of  Raleigh  begging  money 
to  pay  for  the  lot  for  a  Baptist  church  in  the  village  of 
Winston.  The  few  Baptists  of  Winston  made  their  con- 
tributions mostly  in  kind — that  is,  by  furnishing  and 
hauling  the  timber  and  doing  the  work. 

W^hen  Dr.  Brown  began  his  pastorate  in  1877  Winston 
was  a  village  of  one  thousand  people.  Where  the  Wach- 
ovia Bank  and  Trust  Company  building  now  stands  was 
a  little  store  conducted  by  Mr.  R^obert  Gray,  who  lived 
on  the  site  now  occupied  by  the  Owens  Drug  Company. 
The  O'Hanlon  corner  was  in  woods.  The  whipping-post 
stood  near  what  is  now  the  heart  of  the  city.  Winston 
was  noted,  not  for  its  great  industrial  plants,  but  for  its 
dried  blackberries.  Three  churches  had  already  been 
established  in  the  community — Moravian,  Methodist 
Protestant  and  Presbyterian. 

The  growth  of  the  Baptists  of  Winston  and  the  vicin- 
ity has  more  than  kept  pace  with  the  growth  of  the  city. 
In  1877  there  was  but  one  Baptist  church  in  or  near 
Winston;  in  1887,  two;  in  1907,  four;  in  1917,  eight,  and 
in  1925,  thirteen.  In  1870  there  was  not  a  Baptist  any- 
where in  Winston;  in  1871  there  were  but  five;  in  1877, 
when  Dr.  Brown  came,  fifty;  in  1897,  six  hundred  and 
seventy-five;  in  1907,  eleven  hundred  and  nine;  in  1917, 
when  he  retired,  two  thousand,  seven  hundred  and  thirty- 
nine;  and  in  1922,  four  thousand  and  sixty-one.  In  1877 
the  Baptists,  as  has  already  been  stated,  were  contribut- 
ing $8  a  year  to  all  objects  of  benevolence  and  paying 
their  pastor  $325  per  year  and  receiving  aid  from  the 
State  Mission  Board.  In  1924  the  Baptists  of  Winston- 
Salem  contributed  $34,633.74  to  benevolences  and  $237,- 
803.97  to  local  expenses,  a  total  of  $272,437.71  to  all  ob- 
jects. 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  77 

Leader  In  His  Association 

It  was  inevitable  that  the  leadership  of  Dr.  Brown 
should  extend  beyond  his  local  church  and  beyond  the 
churches  that  were  offsprings  of  his  church  and  that  it 
should  extend  to  the  churches  of  all  the  outlying  area. 

The  Pilot  Mountain  Association,  composed  of  Baptist 
churches  in  Forsyth,  Stokes,  Rockingham  and  Surry 
counties,  was  organized  from  the  Beulah  Association  in 
1885.  In  1890  (the  first  minutes  available)  it  had  2,080 
members  and  contributed  $5,164.76  to  all  objects — be- 
nevolence and  local  expenses.  In  1917  it  had  9,843  mem- 
bers and  contributed  $47,662.54  to  all  objects. 

Of  the  sixty-three  churches  in  the  Pilot  Mountain  As- 
sociation, Dr.  Brown  aided  in  planting  fifty.  For  nearly 
twenty-five  years  he  was  chairman  and  treasurer  of  the 
Executive  Committee  of  the  Association,  whose  business 
it  was  to  find  destitute  fields,  to  place  preachers  in  them, 
to  find  money  to  pay  expenses,  and  eventually  to  plant 
Baptist  churches,  make  them  self-supporting  and  then  to 
withdraw  from  them  the  financial  aid  of  the  Association 
and  the  State  Mission  Board.  His  reports  as  chairman 
of  the  Executive  Committee  made  to  the  Association 
year  after  year  are  as  businesslike  as  the  reports  of  the 
president  of  a  corporation  to  his  board  of  directors.  For 
each  man  engaged  in  missionary  work  in  the  Association 
he  reported  the  number  of  sermons  preached,  the  num- 
ber of  visits  made,  the  number  of  baptisms,  the  amount 
of  contributions  received.  He  reported  on  the  progress 
of  the  work  in  each  separate  field,  with  recommendations 
as  to  what  should  be  done  next  in  that  field. 

Dr.  Brown  was  the  captain  of  a  little  band  of  soldiers 
of  the  cross  whose  business  it  was  to  spread  the  gospel 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  Pilot  Moun- 


78  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

tain  Association.  Some  of  the  members  of  his  company 
were  Pinkney  Oliver,  C.  C.  Haymore,  S.  F.  Conrad, 
N.  J.  Matthews,  R.  M.  Loftis,  J.  H.  Llewellyn,  and  W.  H. 
Wilson. 

His  Rallying  Cries 

Nearly  every  report  of  the  Executive  Committee  for 
twenty-five  years — and  Dr.  Brown  was  the  author  of 
them  all — closed  with  an  exhortation  to  go  forward — 
never  a  note  of  doubt  or  discouragement — which  must 
have  served  as  a  rallying  cry  to  his  little  band  of  com- 
rades.   Some  of  them  are  worthy  of  repetition  here. 

"May  the  Lord  give  us  larger  views  and  grace  suf- 
ficient to  rise  up  to  the  full  measure  of  our  responsi- 
bility." 

"The  fields  are  white  unto  the  harvest  and  the  Lord 
has  blest  us  with  the  ability  to  do  a  great  work  in  build- 
ing up  the  'waste  places.'  Again  we  ask,  'Shall  we  not 
go  forward?'  " 

"Let  our  motto  be,  in  the  future  as  in  the  past,  'On- 
ward and  Upward'." 

"Let  all  our  churches  gradually  increase  their  contri- 
butions to  State  Missions  until  all  the  waste  places  shall 
be  supplied  and,  'from  the  mountains  to  the  sea'  there 
shall  not  be  a  locality  that  is  not  blessed  with  a  well-or- 
ganized and  well-equipped  Baptist  church  and  Sunday 
school." 

"Let  all  our  churches  do  more  and  more  for  State  Mis- 
sions until  the  wilderness  and  the  solitary  place  shall  be 
glad  and  the  desert  shall  blossom  like  the  rose  and  the 
smile  of  our  God  shall  rest  on  all  our  land." 

"With  gratitude  in  our  hearts  to  God  for  great  mercies 
received  and  with  growing  desire  for  the  spread  of  the 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  79 

gospel  throughout  the  earth,  we  turn  our  faces  joyfully 
to  the  coming  century."    (1899) 

"The  outlook  has  never  been  better  for  us,  and  with 
growing  faith  in  God  and  confidence  in  ourselves  as  his 
servants,  we  can  sooner  make  our  part  of  the  state  blos- 
som like  the  rose." 

"  Thus  far  the  Lord  has  helped  us.'  Our  faces  are  to 
the  front  and  God  is  on  our  side.  We  need  only  to  keep 
going  forward  to  possess  the  land." 

"Truly  the  Lord  has  been  very  gracious  to  us  during 
all  the  year.  Let  us  recognize  his  guiding  hand  and 
press  forward  to  finish  the  work  he  has  given  us  to  do." 

"With  confidence  in  God  and  faith  in  our  brethren,  let 
us  press  forward  to  a  larger  effort  for  the  spread  of  the 
gospel  throughout  the  world." 

"We  shall  be  unworthy  stewards  of  the  manifold  grace 
of  God  if  we  fail  to  make  larger  contributions  to  the 
growing  demands  upon  us  for  the  evangelization  of  the 
whole  world." 

"With  gratitude  to  God  for  his  mercies  past,  with  con- 
sciousness of  the  present  need,  and  faith  in  his  goodness 
for  the  years  to  come,  we  joj^fully  turn  our  faces  to  the 
work  before  us." 

"The  future  before  us  is  as  bright  as  the  promise  of 
God." 

"Forgetting  the  toils  and  labors  of  the  past,  we  will 
reach  out  for  the  larger  things  which  our  Master  has  in 
store  for  us." 

"With  our  faces  to  the  front  and  our  loins  girded  about 
and  our  Master  in  the  lead,  we  will  do  our  best  to  take 
and  hold  the  territory  for  him." 

"With  faith  in  God  and  in  our  own  ability  to  do  things, 
we  seek  to  adjust  ourselves  to  the  changing  conditions 
and  finish  the  task  committed  to  oiu-  trust." 


80  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

The  minutes  of  the  Pilot  Mountain  Association  dur- 
ing the  past  thirty  years  reveal  the  kind  of  leader  Dr. 
Brown  is.  He  kept  himself  in  the  background.  He  made 
few  speeches  and  took  active  part  in  few  discussions.  He 
always  stood  for  co-operation  with  the  institutions,  agen- 
cies and  interests  of  his  denomination.  Most  of  the  reso- 
lutions he  introduced  related  to  the  connection  between 
the  Pilot  Mountain  Association  and  the  general  work — 
such  as  requesting  the  support  of  the  churches  of  the  As- 
sociation for  some  mission  or  educational  or  orphanage 
enterprise  of  the  denomination.  Never  once  does  he  ap- 
pear introducing  a  resolution  or  making  a  speech  or  tak- 
ing part  in  a  discussion  that  was  critical  of  the  work  of 
his  denomination  or  of  his  brethren.  Just  as  in  the  case 
of  his  work  on  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Associa- 
tion, he  stood  for  progress.  He  could  be  found  always 
just  a  little  in  front  of  his  brethren,  not  out  of  sight  of 
them  ever,  beckoning  them  on  to  higher  places  in  King- 
dom v/ork. 

God's  Chosen  Leader 

Dr.  Brown  would  be  the  last  of  men  to  claim  for  him- 
self or  have  me  claim  for  him  credit  for  the  progress  that 
has  been  made  during  the  past  forty-seven  years  in  the 
work  of  the  Baptist  denomination,  whether  in  the  local 
church,  the  city,  or  the  Association.  Progress  would 
have  been  made — maybe  not  so  rapid  or  so  symmetrical 
— had  Dr.  Brown  never  lived.  The  Lord  is  not  depend- 
ent upon  any  one  man  to  carry  on  his  work.  He  is  able 
to  raise  up  a  leader  whenever  he  needs  one.  But  God, 
in  his  providence,  did  see  fit  to  make  Dr.  Brown  a  leader 
among  his  brethren.  The  progress  under  his  leadership, 
as  I  have  outlined  it,  shows  the  nature  and  efficiency  of 
such  leadership. 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  81 

His  Level  Head 

What  has  made  Dr.  Brown— quiet,  unassuming,  self- 
effacing  as  he  is  and  has  always  been— such  a  leader 
among  his  brethren?    Bishop  Kondthaler  who  has  known 
him  intimately  during  all  these  years  and  has  watched 
his  leadership  from  the  vantage  point  of  membership 
in  another  denomination,  attributes  a  part  of  his  leader- 
ship to  an  uncommonly  level  head.     He  says  that  Dr. 
Brown  was  born  with  a  level  head.    "I  have  never  known 
him  to  make  a  mistake  in  judgment.     It  has  kept  him 
from  going  into  excesses.    He  was  never  carried  away  by 
a  fanatical  movement.     Twenty  years  ago  the  Perfect 
Holiness  movement  rose  and  swept  some  of  our  best  peo- 
ple.   Both  of  us  had  to  suffer  from  the  movement.    Dr. 
Brown,  when  they  asked  him  to  preach  Perfect  Holi- 
ness, replied  '1  am  not  going  to  preach  anything  I  can't 
practice.'"     Dr.  Lilly  says  of  his  good  judgment,  "I 
think  of  him  as  a  man  of  unusual  poise  and  balance.  His 
judgment  was  always  good  and  his  counsel  safe.     He 
gave  me  the  impression  of  a  wholesome,  normal  person- 
ality such  as  is  seldom  found."    In  a  time  of  excitement, 
whether  in  affairs  of  church  or  community  or  state,  you 
can  count  on  Dr.  Brown  keeping  his  head  clear  and  his 
spirit  calm. 

His  Optimism 

Another  quality  of  Dr.  Brown's  leadership  is  that  he 
has  had  all  through  the  years  an  abiding  faith  in  the 
ultimate  triumph  of  the  right.  Note  with  what  hopeful- 
ness and  optimism  he  concludes  his  reports  as  chairman 
of  the  Executive  Committee  on  the  progress  of  the  work 
in  the  Association.  What  he  has  said  about  Jesus  and 
optimism  in  one  of  his  short  articles  in  The  Biblical 
Recorder  is  really  a  self-revelation  of  his  own  spirit. 


82  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

"He  was  an  optimist  in  that  he  had  large  hopefulness, 
large  love  and  patience  and  firm  belief  in  the  possibili- 
ties of  men,  through  faith  in  God  and  effort  on  their  own 
part,  to  rise  out  of  their  dead  selves  to  higher  things.  He 
was  not  easily  discouraged  by  conditions  about  him.  He 
lived  in  a  period  of  great  poverty  and  suffering.  He  had 
made  no  earthly  accumulations.  He  was  a  homeless 
man,  with  no  place  he  could  call  his  own  where  he  might 
lay  his  head.  But  he  said,  'A  man's  life  does  not  con- 
sist in  the  abundance  of  things  that  he  possesseth.'  When 
a  great  storm  swept  over  the  sea  and  the  vessel  was 
tossed  by  the  winds  and  the  disciples  were  almost  fright- 
ened out  of  their  wits,  he  stood  up  with  great  serenity 
and  confidence  and  said,  Teace  be  still,'  and  there  was 
a  great  calm.  The  sunshine  rested  on  the  face  of  the 
waters  and  every  breath  of  air  brought  healing  and  glad- 
ness. 

"When  his  disciples  came  back  from  a  great  preach- 
ing tour  and  said,  'The  devils  are  subject  unto  us,'  he 
said,  'I  saw  Satan  as  lightning  falling  from  heaven,'  or, 
in  other  words,  'I  see  Satan  falling.'  A  process  was  in 
operation  which  was  destined  to  renovate  the  earth  and 
finally  overcome  all  the  powers  of  evil.  It  is  the  one  far 
off  divine  event  toward  which  the  whole  creation  moves. 
He  saw  it  through  to  the  finish  and  there  was  no  tremu- 
lous touch  of  fear  that,  in  the  end,  there  would  be  fail- 
ure anywhere. 

"When  Martha  met  him  and  told  him  of  her  brother's 
death,  he  said,  'Thy  brother  shall  live  again.'  But  when 
she  remonstrated,  'I  know  he  shall  live  in  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  just,'  he  said,  'I  am  the  resurrection  and  the 
life;  he  that  believeth  in  me  even  though  he  were  dead 
yet  shall  he  live  and  whosoever  liveth  and  believeth  in 
me  shall  never  die.'    This  was  a  triumphant  utterance 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  83 

based  on  his  conscious  power  to  make  all  things  new. 
And  for  the  joy  that  was  set  before  him,  he  endured  the 
cross,  despising  the  shame,  and  is  set  down  at  the  right 
hand  of  the  throne  of  God.  And  our  firm  faith  in  his 
power  to  make  good  all  that  he  has  promised  should 
make  real  optimists  of  us  all." 


His  Patience 

Still  another  quality  of  Dr.  Brown's  leadership  is  his 
patience.  This,  of  course,  is  an  outgrowth  of  his  faith. 
Like  Browning,  he  believes  that  the  best  is  yet  to  be,  the 
last  of  life  for  which  the  first  was  made.  Being  patient, 
he  does  not  lose  heart  if  his  brethren  do  not  move  as 
quickly  or  in  the  very  way  he  would  like  for  them  to 
move.  This  is  illustrated  in  the  way  in  which  he  has  led 
his  own  congregation  in  steps  of  progress.  He  made  the 
suggestion.  That  is,  he  planted  the  seed  of  an  idea. 
Then  he  waited  for  it  to  germinate  and  shoot.  It  did 
not  always  come  forth  as  he  had  pictured  it  would.  But 
in  the  course  of  time  it  did  come  forth  and  bear  fruit  of 
its  kind.  So  quietly  had  he  moved  that  those  who  finally 
carried  out  the  idea  thought  it  was  theirs,  rather  than 
his,  they  were  carrying  out. 

Dr.  Brown  is  a  man  of  superior  wisdom.  To  him  the 
Lord  has  given  a  wise  and  an  understanding  heart.  His 
calmness,  patience  and  optimism  are  but  manifestations 
of  his  wisdom.  His  advice,  seldom  volunteered,  is,  when 
sought,  sound  on  matters  of  state  and  business  as  well 
as  matters  of  conduct  and  doctrine. 

Remember,  we  are  still  in  quest  of  an  answer  to  the 
question  why  Dr.  Brown  is  the  pastor  beloved.  Is  the 
answer  to  be  found  in  the  fact  of  his  leadership?  Do 
men  of  all  creeds,  colors  and  conditions  love  him  because 


84  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

he  has  led  the  Baptists  of  his  congregation,  of  his  city, 
of  his  section  of  the  state  and,  to  a  lesser  degree,  of  the 
state  as  a  whole  to  larger  and  larger  things?  No,  we 
have  not  found  the  answer  yet.  Men  never  love  a  fel- 
lowman  because  he  is  a  leader.  They  may,  however, 
make  him  their  leader  because  they  love  him.  Herein 
is  the  reason  for  Dr.  Brown's  leadership,  but  not  the  ex- 
planation of  the  love  that  men  have  for  him.  In  the 
qualities  of  his  character  displayed  in  his  leadership — 
his  commonsense,  his  optimism,  his  patience — are  to  be 
found  the  by-products  of  a  soul  that  wins  the  love  of 
men.  So  let  us  continue  our  study  of  the  wise  man 
whose  soul  has  such  by-products  as  good  judgment,  op- 
timism and  patience. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  EFFECTIVE  PREACHER 

"A  word  fitly  spoken  is  like  apples  of  gold  in  pictures  of  silver" 
Proverbs  xxv:  U. 

The  superiority  of  Dr.  Brown  as  a  pastor  has  over- 
shadowed his  pre-eminent  ability  as  a  preacher.  Or,  as 
Miss  Carrie  Jones  expresses  it,  ''His  goodness  has  swal- 
lowed his  smartness.  People  have  been  so  used  to  speak- 
ing of  him  as  good.  Any  preacher  that  can  occupy  a 
pulpit  as  long  as  he  did  and  preach  the  simple  gospel 
must  be  a  smart  man." 


His  Preparation 

Dr.  Brown  never  went  into  his  pulpit  unprepared. 
Most  of  his  sermons  were  written  out  in  full  but  they 
were  never  read  and,  after  the  first  years  of  his  ministry, 
never  memorized.  In  his  reminiscences  of  Fayetteville 
he  has  this  to  say  about  his  preparation  of  sermons,  "It 
was  my  method  in  my  early  ministry  to  write  every  ser- 
mon on  eight  pages  of  foolscap  paper.  I  committed  it 
to  memory,  and  when  I  started  to  the  pulpit  I  always 
folded  my  sermon  and  placed  it  in  my  coat  pocket,  so 
that  I  could  get  it  if  I  needed  it.  Once  a  great  congrega- 
tion gathered  in  the  church.  All  the  lawyers  and  doctors 
and  other  professional  men  of  the  city  were  present  that 
morning.  I  had  selected  as  my  text  the  passage,  'While 
thy  servant  was  busy  here  and  there  he  was  gone.'    I 

185] 


86  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

was  much  agitated  when  I  saw  such  a  company  of  dis- 
tinguished men  in  the  audience.  I  began  with  fear  and 
trembling.  Presently  I  forgot  my  place — forgot  the  next 
sentence,  went  back  to  begin  again,  cleared  my  throat, 
looked  up  at  the  ceiling,  perspired  and  rubbed  my  head; 
then  I  took  out  my  manuscript,  opened  it  and  began  to 
read.  It  was  a  bitter  experience  and  I  was  humiliated 
beyond  expression.  The  people  were  sympathetic  and  I 
heard  no  criticism  of  the  performance.  It  taught  me  a 
lesson,  and  I  abandoned  forever  the  task  of  trying  to 
commit  every  word  in  my  sermon  to  memory.  I  have 
failed  many  times  since  then  but  never  for  the  same 
reason.  Let  the  young  preachers  beware  of  this  more 
laborious  and  unsatisfactory  method  of  sermonizing." 

Dr.  Brown  has  alwaj^s  been  a  devoted  but  discriminat- 
ing reader  of  the  best  in  both  contemporary  and  classical 
literature.  Dr.  Charles  E.  Taylor,  for  many  years  presi- 
dent of  Wake  Forest  College  and,  himself,  a  discrimi- 
nating reader,  said  of  Dr.  Brown's  library,  ''This  is  the 
best  working  library  I  have  found  in  any  pastor's  study." 
One  of  the  things  that  has  impressed  me  as  I  have  been 
in  Dr.  Brown's  library  time  after  time,  both  during  his 
active  pastorate  and  since,  has  been  the  number  of  new 
books  and  magazines  and  religious  publications  on  his 
table.  Not  all  the  books  were  on  theological  or  even  re- 
ligious  subjects,  either.  He  is,  indeed,  one  of  the  schol- 
arly ministers  of  the  gospel  of  our  day. 

Not  only  his  wide  reading  but  his  broad  human  sym- 
pathies as  well  gave  him  a  wealth  of  material  for  his 
sermons.  I  find  in  reading  only  a  portion  of  his  bi- 
weekly short  articles  in  The  Biblical  Recorder  that  he 
quotes  freely  from  or  draws  illustrations  from  the  lives 
of  the  poets,  Shakespeare,  Byron,  Robert  Louis  Steven- 
son, Browning,  Burns ;  from  the  statesmen,  Lincoln,  John 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  87 

Qiiincy  Adams,  John  Randolph,  James  A.  Garfield, 
Woodrow  Wilson;  from  the  philosophers,  Benjamin 
Franklin,  Socrates,  Plato,  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson;  from  the 
essayists,  Emerson,  Thomas  Carlyle;  from  the  novelists, 
Victor  Hugo  and  George  Elliot;  from  the  soldiers,  Alex- 
ander the  Great,  Ulysses,  Napoleon,  Oliver  Cromwell, 
Robert  E.  Lee;  from  the  preachers,  Horace  Bushnell, 
William  Carey,  John  A.  Broadus,  Charles  Spurgeon, 
John  Knox,  Matthew  T.  Yates,  Phillips  Brooks,  Henry 
AVard  Beecher,  and  from  the  scientist,  Herbert  Spencer. 
He  seems  to  be  equally  at  home  with  Greek  mythology, 
Greek  philosophy,  with  poets,  statesmen,  seers,  soldiers, 
scientists,  ancient,  medieval  and  modern.  This,  to  be 
sure,  is  a  side  of  Dr.  Brown's  life  little  known  to  the 
public;  for  his  heart  has  overshadowed  his  head. 

His  Style 

One  of  the  characteristics  of  Dr.  Brown's  style,  as  one 
would  expect,  is  the  simplicity  of  his  language — short, 
vigorous,  Anglo-Saxon  words.  He  has  little  patience  with 
the  use  of  ponderous  words  that  so  often  hide  lack  of 
thought.  He  thinks  clearly;  therefore,  he  writes  and 
speaks  simply.  He  "never  allowed  words  a  part  in  com- 
pleting the  fabric  of  an  imperfect  thought."  Here  is  what 
he  says  about  the  use  of  big  words:  'There  are  many  peo- 
ple who  are  fond  of  using  big  words — words  not  in  com- 
mon use  by  the  rank  and  file  of  the  country.  This  is  no 
indication  of  good  taste  and  certainly  no  evidence  of  great 
scholarship.  Great  thinkers  are  generally  very  simple, 
plain  and  direct  in  their  public  and  private  utterances. 
Preachers  who  will  live  longest  in  the  thoughts  of  coming 
generations  used  language  easily  understood  by  their 
hearers.    We  have  famous  illustrations  of  this  fact  in  the 


88  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

sermons  of  Broadus,  Spurgeon,  Beecher  and  Jowett. 
Preachers,  of  all  men,  need  most  to  speak  in  language 
plain  and  strong,  since  their  messages  are  for  the  benefit 
of  all  classes.  Jesus  did  not  make  use  of  words  that  the 
humblest  hearers  might  not  comprehend.  Dr.  A.  T.  Rob- 
ertson, says,  'Great  preaching  calls  for  great  thinking, 
not  for  big  words  but  for  big  ideas  that  touch  the  depths 
of  the  human  soul  and  rise  to  the  throne  of  God.'  I  have 
known  a  few  men  who  spoke  in  an  unknown  tongue, 
but,  while  this  may  have  been  pleasing  to  them,  it  was 
unprofitable  to  their  hearers.  Perhaps  you  have  heard 
of  the  college  professor  who  spoke  after  that  fashion  to 
an  ignorant  colored  servant,  'Conduct  this  quadruped  to 
suitable  quarters,  stabulate  him  and  supply  him  with  a 
sufficient  quantity  of  nutritious  aliment,  and  when  the 
luminary  of  the  day  shall  illumine  the  gorgeous  east 
I  will  compensate  you  for  your  service.'  The  poor  negro 
did  not  know  that  he  simply  meant  for  him  to  put  his 
horse  into  the  stable  and  feed  him.  Rev.  P.  H.  Fountain 
told  me  this  incident:  There  was  a  great  meeting  going 
on  in  a  colored  church.  The  pastor  called  on  one  of  the 
members  to  pray.  He  thought  he  must  make  an  impres- 
sion by  the  use  of  big  words,  so  he  began  by  saying, 
'Horous,  horous,  most  diabolical  God.'  The  pastor  called 
out,  'Stop  there,  and  let  some  other  one  pray  who  is  bet- 
ter acquainted  with  de  Lord  than  this  brudder  is'." 

And  a  characteristic  of  Dr.  Brown's  sermons  is  the 
simplicity  of  the  illustrations  he  uses.  Most  of  them  are 
drawn  from  nature — the  moon,  the  sun,  the  stars,  the 
waves,  the  dews,  the  buds,  the  trees,  the  seed.  His  il- 
lustrations, like  his  words,  are  never  above  the  heads  of 
his  hearers.  In  this  respect  his  preaching  is  like  that  of 
Jesus,  himself.  Here  is  what  he  says  about  the  dewdrop, 
'Ts  there  anything  in  all  the  universe  more  beautiful 


THE  BAPTIST  CHURCH  IN  WINSTON,  1877. 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  89 

than  drops  of  clew  trembling  on  the  blades  of  grass  and 
the  leaves  of  the  trees  and  reflecting  back  to  the  skies 
the  image  of  the  sun?  Behold  how  good  and  beautiful 
it  is  when  brethren  dwell  together  in  unity.  It  is  like 
the  dew  of  Hermon  descending  on  the  mountains  of  Is- 
rael. 

"Dew  drops  are  little  things,  but  they  are  things  of 
beauty  and  a  joy  forever!  They  are  symbolic  of  little 
deeds  o^  kindness,  little  thoughts  of  sympathy  and 
little  words  of  love  which  make  the  earth  an  Eden 
like  the  heaven  above.  If  it  were  not  for  the  love  of 
others  which  shines  like  the  dew  drops  in  the  hearts 
of  so  many  people  on  this  earth  it  would  wabble  through 
space  like  a  dead  ball  without  sunshine  and  the  songs 
of  birds. 

''The  dew  is  a  commonplace  thing.  It  is  everywhere 
— on  the  mountainside,  in  the  field  and  valley,  and  se- 
questered spot.  It  had  no  hiding-place;  it  is  open  to  the 
sight  of  all.  Lot  swept  it  away  with  his  hurrying  feet 
as  he  escaped  from  burning  Sodom.  Lazarus  was  in 
sight  of  it  as  he  lay  begging  hard  by  the  rich  man's 
gate. 

'Thank  God,  love  is  a  commonplace  thing.  It  is  not 
confined  to  kings'  palaces  or  the  homes  of  the  rich  where 
luxuries  abound.  It  is  everywhere.  In  the  homes  of  the 
poor,  where  the  tired  laborer  wipes  from  his  face  the 
sweat  of  honest  toil,  he  finds  love  in  the  laugh  of  child- 
hood and  the  smile  of  motherhood.  Its  touch  is  on  a 
million  hearts  tonight,  and  its  joy  is  resting  on  a  thou- 
sand homes,  for  where  a  mother's  heart  is  love  is  there, 
and  in  the  darkest  spot  of  earth  some  love  is  found." 

Who  that  lives  in  the  country  or  was  raised  on  the 
farm  or  that  thinks  he  would  like  to  live  in  the  country 


90  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

— and  this  includes  everybody — but  is  not  thrilled  by 
this  picture  of  farm  life  when  the  day's  work  is  over, 
used  by  Dr.  Brown  to  illustrate  the  end  of  one's  life- 
work:  'Tarmers  who  follow  the  plow  and  the  reaper 
from  early  morning  till  the  evening  are  prepared  to  ap- 
preciate the  quiet  and  restfulness  that  come  w^ien  the 
day's  work  is  over.  They  sit  in  their  yards  and  listen 
to  the  drowsy  tinkling  of  the  distant  folds  and  the  low- 
ing of  the  cattle  at  the  farmyard  gate.  The  chickens 
have  gone  to  roost  in  the  trees  and  the  babies  are  sleep- 
ing in  the  trundle  bed.  All  nature  a  solemn  stillness 
holds,  and  the  stars  speak  to  them  out  of  infinite  spaces 
while  a  thousand  voices  v\^hisper  out  of  the  deep  solitudes 
all  about  them.  It  is  a  good  time  to  meditate.  Isaac 
meditated  when  he  walked  in  the  fields  at  the  evening 
hour;  David  on  his  bed  in  the  night  watches. 

"It  is  pleasant  to  think  of  the  creation  of  the  heavens 
and  the  earth — ^the  vastness,  the  wisdom,  the  beauty,  the 
glory  of  it.  We  need  not  trouble  ourselves  about  the 
processes  of  creation  since  they  are  hidden  from  our  eyes, 
but  the  fact  of  creation  is  manifest  to  om'  senses.  The 
heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God  and  the  firmament 
showeth  his  handiwork." 

It  must  be  manifest  to  one  who  listens  to  the  sermons 
or  reads  the  writings  of  Dr.  Brown  that  he  largely  em- 
ploys the  language  of  the  Bible  itself — ^the  King  James 
Version.  He  is  so  familiar  with  it,  it  is  so  much  a  part 
of  his  life  that  he  unconsciously  at  times,  I  think,  uses 
the  language  of  the  Bible  sometimes  as  a  direct  quota- 
tion, sometimes  as  an  indirect  question,  and  sometimes 
only  a  phrase.  Hamilton  Holt  says  of  Corra  Harris,  "No 
editor  could  improve  her  style — and  naturally — for  it 
was  founded  and  grounded  on  the  Bible,  which  she  read 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  91 

constantly  for  love  and  never  from  a  sense  of  duty." 
The  same  msiy  be  said  of  the  style  of  Dr.  Brown. 

Another  thing  that  soon  impresses  one  who  listens  to 
or  reads  after  Dr.  Brown  is  the  frequency  with  which 
he  uses  the  language  of  the  old  hymns  of  the  church. 
They,  too,  are  a  part  of  his  life.  He  quotes  them,  no 
doubt,  without  being  conscious  that  he  is  doing  so. 

Here  are  just  a  few  of  the  quotations  from  these  old 
hymns  I  take  at  random  from  his  articles  in  The  Biblical 
Recorder: 

"We'll  catch  the  broken  threads  again 
And  finish  what  we  here  began, 
Heaven  will  the  mysteries  explain, 
And  then  sometime  we'll  understand." 

"He  that  tires  and  faints 
And  walks  the  ways  of  God  no  more 
Is  but  esteemed  almost  a  saint 
And  makes  his  own  damnation  sure." 

"Teach  me  to  feel  another's  woe, 
To  hide  the  fault  I  see 
That  mercy  I  to  others  show. 
That  mercy  show  to  me." 

"Fear  not  the  v/ant  of  outward  good, 
For  his  he  will  provide; 
Grant  them  supplies  of  daily  food, 
And  give  them  heaven  beside," 

"So  the  dews  on  Hermon's  hill, 
Which  the  summer  clouds  distill 
Floating  southward  in  the  night 
Pearly  gems  on  Zion  light." 

"Not  now  but  in  the  coming  year 
It  may  be  in  the  better  land. 
We'll  read  the  meaning  of  our  tears 
And  then,  ah  then,  we'll  understand." 

To  a  less  extent  he  uses  freely  the  language,  quoting 
directly  or  indirectly,  of  the  standard  poems  of  our 
language — as,  for  instance,  from  Byron,  Tennyson  and 
Browning. 


92  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

This  it  is  that  makes  what  Dr.  Brown  says  and  writes 
so  pleasing.  In  the  very  phrases  he  uses  one  finds  old, 
familiar  friends.  It  happened  that  I  arranged  my  notes 
for  this  little  book  while  I  was  spending  my  vacation 
at  a  beach  resort.  At  the  hotel  at  which  I  was  stop- 
ping was  a  splendid  orchestra  that  entertained  the  guests 
at  mealtime  and  during  the  evening.  Habitually,  as 
w^as  natural,  it  played  the  jazz  music  of  the  day.  But 
one  evening  the  orchestra  swung  out  of  the  jazz  into 
the  old  song  of  the  chm-ch,  "Onward,  Christian  Soldiers," 
and  never  had  that  song  sounded  so  sweet.  It  was  like 
finding  an  old  friend  in  the  midst  of  a  host  of  strangers. 
So  it  is  with  the  words  of  Dr.  Brown,  whether  spoken 
or  written,  old  friends  brought  together  from  the  Bible 
and  from  poetry  and  from  classical  literature  to  share 
the  attention,  as  welcome  guests,  with  the  slang  of  to- 
day. 

Still  another  characteristic  of  Dr.  Brown's  style,  as 
is  to  be  expected,  is  the  frequency  with  which  he  uses 
Bible  characters  for  the  purposes  of  illustration.  With 
equal  facility  he  draws  upon  Old  Testament  or  New. 
The  characters  and  events  of  the  Bible  are  to  him  like 
the  keys  of  a  piano  to  a  Paderewski — ready  always  for 
his  touch  without  ever  a  conscious  search  for  them. 

One  could  hardly  conceive  of  Dr.  Brown  preaching 
upon  any  but  the  most  practical  subjects.  His  first  ser- 
mon as  pastor  in  Fayetteville  was  a  study  of  the  beati- 
tudes based  on  the  text,  "Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart, 
for  they  shall  see  God."  His  first  and  last  sermon  as  pas- 
tor in  Winston-Salem  was  on  the  text,  "The  love  of  Christ 
constraineth  us."  (2  Cor.  5:  14.)  It  will  be  interesting  to 
read  what  Dr.  Brown,  himself,  says  about  his  first  ser- 
mon. "My  first  sermon  was  preached  in  a  log  schoolhouse, 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  93 

for  there  was  no  Baptist  meeting-house  in  twelve  miles  of 
the  place.  Many  of  my  friends  and  neighbors  came  to 
hear  me.  I  was  greatly  excited.  I  knew  nothing  about 
sermon  preparation.  My  text  was,  'The  wicked  is  driven 
away  in  his  wickedness  but  the  righteous  hath  hope  in  the 
death.'  I  quoted  many  passages  of  Scripture  describing 
the  wicked.  I  referred  to  the  difference  in  the  conduct  of 
the  wicked  and  the  righteous.  I  then  spoke  of  how  the 
wicked  had  been  driven  away  in  their  wickedness.  I 
referred  to  the  antediluvians,  the  Sodomites,  the  people 
at  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  Herod  and  other  indi- 
viduals. I  spoke  of  the  death  of  the  righteous,  referred 
to  the  death  of  Stephen,  Paul,  Judson,  and  some  others 
I  had  known.  I  closed  with  an  exhortation  to  sinners 
to  turn  before  it  was  too  late.  Many  spoke  encourag- 
ing words  to  me.  But  there  was  one  man  there  who  was 
cold  and  critical  and  entirely  out  of  sympathy  with  my 
feeble  effort.  He  went  so  far  as  to  say  to  some  that  he 
would  rather  hear  the  lowing  of  oxen  or  the  braying  of 
asses  than  to  hear  me  try  to  preach.  When  I  heard  of 
this  criticism  it  troubled  me  greatly.  I  was  much  in 
prayer  for  grace  to  help  me.  I  said  I  need  not  expect 
to  escape  criticism  and  other  forms  of  opposition  in 
preaching  the  gospel.  But  as  time  went  on  he  came 
again  to  hear  me  and  then  again.  I  heard  of  friendly 
remarks  he  made  and  of  great  confidence  he  expressed 
in  my  sincerity.  And  when  he  was  very  sick  he  wanted 
me  to  see  him.  I  went  and  he  expressed  his  interest  in 
me  and  his  love  for  me  and  asked  me  to  pray  for  him. 
I  prayed  earnestly  for  him  and  he  was  greatly  moved 
by  it  under  the  power  of  the  Spirit.  We  parted  at  his 
bedside  not  to  meet  again  until  the  day  dawns  and  the 
shadows  flee  away." 


94  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

Dr.  Brown  never  tires  his  audience  by  the  length  of 
his  sermons.  Having  carefully  prepared  them  before- 
hand, he  knows  how  long  it  will  take  him  to  deliver 
them.  Nor  does  he  try  to  hold  the  attention  of  his 
audience  to  the  end — as  speakers,  sometimes  do — by  say- 
ing '^finally"  or  ''in  conclusion"  when  he  is  only  half 
through.  Dr.  Brown  always  knows  when  he  is  through 
developing  the  thought  he  has  in  mind,  and,  when  he  is 
through,  he  quits.  I  have  known  him  to  quit  when  his 
audience  thought  he  was  just  approaching  a  climax.  In 
fact.  Dr.  Brown  does  not  approve  of  either  long-winded 
preaching  or  praying.    Here  is  what  he  says  about  it. 

A  Long  Sermon 

''Many  years  ago  a  friend  of  mine  was  in  the  habit 
of  preaching  sermons  rather  longer  than  was  comfort- 
able to  many  of  his  hearers.  I  ventured  to  say  to  him 
on  one  occasion,  with  great  deference,  that  it  might  be 
well  for  him  to  keep  back  part  of  his  material  for  an- 
other sermon.  I  said,  'It  is  not  best  for  the  digestion  to 
eat  all  that  is  on  the  table  at  one  meal.  If  yom*  ser- 
mon is  medicine  for  the  sick  or  a  tonic  for  the  conval- 
escing, give  it  to  them  in  smaller  doses.'  At  first,  he 
seemed  to  resent  slightly  my  insinuation  that  he  was 
overdoing  a  good  thing.  He  spoke  with  an  air  of  con- 
fidence when  he  said  that  Paul  preached  long  ser- 
mons. At  one  time  he  continued  his  discourse  'until  the 
break  of  day.'  'Yes,'  I  said,  'but  do  you  remember  that 
while  he  was  continuing  his  discourse  a  young  man 
went  to  sleep  and  fell  out  of  the  window  and  broke  his 
neck?  And  Paul  went  down  and  healed  him.  But  if 
someone  would  have  an  accident  like  that  while  you  were 
preaching  you  could  not  do  what  Paul  did.'    He  smiled 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  95 

and  said,  ^I  suppose  not.'  But  the  time  element  is  not 
the  only  thing  that  makes  a  sermon  seem  long.  It 
may  be  only  fifteen  minutes  from  beginning  to  end  and 
yet  be  a  long  sermon  because  the  people  are  'dull  of 
hearing'  and  the  matter  is  heavy  and  the  delivery  not 
engaging.  On  the  other  hand,  a  sermon  may  last  an 
hour  or  more  and  not  be  'long'  because  the  preacher  is 
moved  by  the  Spirit,  clothed  with  power  and  unction,  and 
the  people  with  open  hearts  hear  the  word  with  gladness, 
and  it  seems  just  a  little  while." 

A  Long  Prayer 

As  to  the  long  prayer  Dr.  Brown  says  'A  score  of 
years  ago  and  more  a  brother  minister  and  I  made  a 
tour  of  the  churches  in  Stokes,  Forsyth,  Rockingham  and 
Caswell  Counties  in  the  interest  of  the  endowment  of 
Wake  Forest  College.  The  canvass  required  twelve  or 
fifteen  days.  The  congregations  were  large,  the 
churches  far  apart,  and  the  roads  were  hilly  and 
rough  and  we  were  often  tired  at  the  close  of  the 
day.  Our  plan  was  to  have  a  sermon  and  an  ad- 
dress on  education  each  day.  We  alternated.  One 
day  I  would  preach  and  he  would  address  the 
people  on  education;  the  next  day  he  would  preach 
and  I  would  speak  on  education.  We  came  at 
length  to  the  closing  day  of  the  itinerary.  We  traveled 
some  distance  to  the  home  of  a  good  man  and  his  fam- 
ily. After  supper  was  over  and  some  conversation  was 
had  on  many  topics  the  hour  for  family  prayer  arrived. 
I  read  the  Scriptures,  the  group  knelt  in  a  circle,  and  my 
companion  in  labors  and  journeys  led  the  prayer.  Tt 
was  linked  sweetness  long  drawn  out.'     He  prayer  all 


96  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

around  the  earth — for  mission  and  missionaries,  for 
churches  and  pastors,  for  governments  and  rulers,  for 
saints  and  sinners,  for  people  at  home  and  for  those  out 
on  the  stormy  deep,  for  the  home  into  which  we  had 
come — ^the  parents  and  the  children.  When  he  said 
'Amen'  he  and  I  arose  and  took  our  seats,  but  the  others 
were  fast  asleep  on  their  knees.  He  began  to  sing 
"Sweet  Hour  of  Prayer,  Sweet  Hour  of  Prayer."  This 
aroused  the  others.  It  was  a  time  to  laugh.  The  good 
woman  of  the  house  saw  the  humor  of  the  situation  and 
said,  Tt  was  a  sweet  hour,  wasn't  it?'  It  may  be  well 
to  have  a  long  prayer  occasionally  but  ordinarily  it  is 
not  best.  All  the  prayers  recorded  in  the  Scriptures  are 
comparatively  brief.  It  is  not  length  but  depth  and 
power  that  are  essential." 

Dr.  Brown's  attitude  toward  and  way  of  dealing  with 
controversial  matters  in  the  pulpit  are  shown  by  his 
handling  of  the  issue  of  divine  sovereignty  and  free  will 
during  his  Fayetteville  pastorate  already  mentioned. 
Though  a  public  spirited  citizen,  he  never  used  his  pul- 
pit as  a  platform  from  which  to  air  his  views  on  the  po- 
litical and  industrial  and  social  topics  of  the  day.  At 
the  close  of  his  last  sermon  as  pastor  of  the  First  Bap- 
tist Church  of  Winson-Salem  he  said  "I  never  tried 
to  preach  sensationalism.  I  thank  God  I  have  never 
preached  anything  but  the  pure  old  gospel." 

His  Manner  in  the  Pulpit 

His  manner  in  the  pulpit  was  quiet  and  soothing.  He 
talked  to  his  congregation  from  the  pulpit  as  he  would 
talk  to  the  members  of  his  congregation  in  their  homes. 
He  saw  no  need  of  loud  or  vehement  preaching  and  did 
not  indulge  in  it.     About  loud  preaching  he  says:   "A 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  97 

good  friend  of  mine  and  one  who  has  labored  much  with 
me  in  special  meetings  was  preaching  on  one  occasion. 
He  was  in  the  habit  of  preaching  loud  and  using  great 
vehemence  in  the  delivery  of  his  message.  I  said  to  him 
at  one  time,  'Surely  you  have  not  learned  that  it  is  not 
the  thunder  that  kills  but  the  lightning.'  At  the  time 
mentioned  above  he  seemed  greatly  wrought  up,  the 
veins  in  his  neck  were  distended,  he  was  throwing  out 
his  clinched  fists  and  gesticulating  violently.  There  was 
a  half-witted  man  who  lived  in  the  neighborhood  and  his 
family  did  not  allow  him  to  go  to  church  often;  but  on 
this  occasion  he  had  slipped  away  and  come  to  the 
church.  He  did  not  understand  what  the  preacher  meant 
by  his  loud  talking  and  shaking  his  fists  so  much.  He 
deliberately  arose  from  his  seat  and  marched  down  the 
aisle  in  front  of  the  preacher  and  said,  'Now  if  you  want 
to  fight,  I'm  your  man,  and  ready  for  you.'  The  preacher 
stood  still  and  looked  at  him.  The  deacons  quietly  re- 
moved the  man  and  there  was  a  great  calm." 

Dr.  Brown  has  led  men  to  Christ  by  making  them 
want  to  be  Christians  and  not  by  making  them  afraid 
not  to  be  Christians.  While  he  never  hesitated  to 
preach  the  stern  qualities — his  power  and  his  justice- 
he  always  kept  in  the  forefront  his  gentle  qualities- 
love  and  mercy.  The  very  fact  that  both  his  first  and 
last  sermons  as  pastor  in  Winston-Salem  were  on  the 
constraining  love  of  Christ  shows  that  he  preferred  to 
entice  men  into  the  kingdom  by  love  rather  than  to  res- 
cue them  from  hell  by  appeal  to  their  fear.  Bishop 
Rondthaler  has  characterized  Dr.  Brown's  preaching  as 
being  "scriptural,  experimental,  spiritual,  instructive, 
pleasant  to  listen  to,  and  comforting  to  remember." 


98  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

We  must  begin  to  see  now  why  he  is  the  pastor  be- 
loved. A  man  cannot  preach  such  an  enticing  gospel  of 
love  without  himself  winning  the  love  of  his  fellowmen, 
provided  only  he  lives  as  he  preaches.  So  now  it  re- 
mains only  to  see  the  extent  to  which  he  has  lived  the 
gospel  of  love  that  he  has  preached. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  ELDER  BROTHER 

"Take  heed  unto  thyself  and  imto  the  doctrine;  continue  in 
them;  for  in  doing  this  thou  shalt  both  save  thyself  and  them 
that  hear  thee."   1  Timothy  iv:  16. 

As  I  stated  in  the  preface,  if  this  appreciation  of  Dr. 
Brown  is  to  have  any  lasting  value  and  be  of  any  in- 
terest outside  the  circles  of  his  family  and  friends,  then 
it  must  be  made  so  because  it  suggests  to  others  a  way 
of  life  that  Dr.  Brown  has  proved  to  be  pre-eminently 
practicable  and  successful.  This  applies  with  especial 
force  to  young  ministers  who  want  their  ministry  to 
count  for  as  much  as  possible. 

For  twenty-five  years  Dr.  Brown  has  been  the  elder 
brother  of  every  young  minister  of  every  denomination 
who  has  lived  in  Winston-Salem  and  to  most  of  them 
who  have  lived  in  the  Pilot  Mountain  Association.  No 
single  incident  in  the  life  of  Dr.  Brown  better  illustrates 
his  wisdom,  tact,  and  brotherly  feeling  for  young  men 
in  the  ministry  than  the  following:  Dr.  Jesse  B.  Weath- 
erspoon,  a  young  man  still  in  his  early  thirties,  was 
called  to  succeed  Dr.  Brown  as  pastor  of  the  First  Bap- 
tist Church  of  Winston-Salem.  Naturally,  he  had  a  veiy 
delicate  and  difficult  place  to  fill.  Before  the  first  busi- 
ness meeting  of  the  church  after  Dr.  Weatherspoon's  ar- 
rival. Dr.  Brown  went  to  him  and  said,  "For  several 
months  I  shall  not  be  present  at  the  business  meetings 
of  the  church,"    When  the  young  pastor  asked  why,  the 

[99] 


100  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

old  one  replied,  ''Weil,  you  are  a  young  man  and  will 
not  be  able  to  use  an  old  man's  harness.  You  will  de- 
sire changes  in  the  organization  and  methods  of  work, 
and  I  don't  want  you  or  the  church  to  be  embarrassed  by 
my  presence."  "Nor  could  I  persuade  him  otherwise," 
says  Dr.  Weatherspoon.  "From  that  day  I  knew  I  had 
in  him  a  wise  and  sympathetic  helper,  and  we  became 
and  remain  to  this  day  as  father  and  son." 

On  the  occasion  of  Dr.  Brown's  thirty-third  anniver- 
sary in  1910,  Rev.  W.  M.  Biles,  a  Methodist  fellow  pas- 
tor, wrote  "Your  life  has  been  a  blessing  to  me.  Pos- 
sibly you  do  not  recall  the  timid  boy  preacher  who  came 
to  Winston-Salem  ten  years  ago.  It  w^as  the  warmest 
handshake  and  Christian  fellowship  coming  from  you 
and  from  no  other  that  cheered  me  up  then  and  helped 
me  to  do  my  work.    I  shall  always  feel  indebted  to  you." 

His  Charge  to  You7ig  Ministers 

Dr.  Brown  participated  in  the  ordination  of  many 
Baptist  ministers  and  has  "delivered  the  charge"  time 
after  time.  Knowing  that  his  "charge"  would  be  the 
cream  of  his  advice  to  young  preachers  I  asked  Dr. 
Brown  to  write  out  the  substance  of  the  "charge"  he 
has  given  so  many  times,  and  I  am  glad,  indeed,  to  give 
it  in  full  as  he  wrote  it  out  for  me. 

"I  shall  begin  by  quoting  a  passage  from  Paul's  let- 
ter to  Timothy,  Take  heed  unto  thyself  and  unto  the 
doctrine;  continue  in  them  for  in  so  doing  thou  shalt 
both  save  thyself  and  them  that  hear  thee.'  I  would 
urge  you  to  read  and  study  carefully  the  letters  of  Paul 
to  Timothy  and  Titus.  You  will  find  much  helpful  in- 
formation bearing  on  the  work  of  the  ministry  and  many 
helpful  suggestions    as   to    life,    conduct    and    teaching 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  101 

which  you  will  do  well  to  heed  and  reduce  to  practice  in 
your  ministry. 

Health 

"When  Paul  uttered  the  words  quoted  at  the  begin- 
ning of  this  address  he  was  beginning  to  be  an  old  man 
and  Timothy  was  a  young  man  beginning  his  public 
ministry.  The  apostle  was  much  concerned  for  his  phys- 
ical welfare  and  his  ministerial  success.  As  Timothy  was 
delicate— a  dyspeptic  or  suffering  from  nervous  indiges- 
tion—Paul said  to  him,  Take  a  little  wine  for  thy  stom- 
ach's sake  and  thine  often  infirmities.'  He  did  not  mean 
that  he  was  to  become  a  winebibber,  a  drunkard,  or  an 
habitual  drinker  of  strong  drink.  The  wine  to  which  he 
referred  was  probably  non-intoxicating— a  light  wine 
such  as  was  often  used  for  table  purposes.  It  was  taken 
as  a  medicine  for  its  tonic  effect  on  his  system.  Every 
preacher  ought  to  be  careful  about  his  health.  His 
health  is  his  best  asset.  What  can  a  poor  preacher  whose 
health  is  blighted  or  all  run  down  do  in  the  work  of  the 
ministry?  Preaching  is  a  man's  job.  He  needs  to  put 
his  best  physical  energies  with  his  preaching.  The  hu- 
man body  is  a  machine  and  it  must  be  kept  in  good  con- 
dition in  order  to  produce  its  best  results. 

''One  of  the  temptations  of  preachers  is  to  eat  too 
much.  When  they  are  away  from  home  they  live  on 
the  fat  of  the  land— the  best  the  country  affords.  The 
good  sisters— I  must  say,  'God  bless  them'— are  often 
responsible  for  the  preacher  overdoing  his  duty  in  the 
matter  of  eating.  They  spread  sumptuous  meals  when 
the  preacher  comes.  They  load  the  table  with  fried 
chicken,  biscuits,  pastries,  desserts,  etc.  The  preacher  is 
hungry,  and,  like  Tom  Sawyer,  often  calls  for  more.  And 
sometimes  when  he  pushes  his  plate  back  the  good  wom- 


102  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

an  at  the  table  insists  that  he  take  more,  that  he  try  this 
new  dish  and  that,  and  if  he  declines  she  will  sometimes 
say,  ^I  am  afraid  you  do  not  enjoy  my  cooking.'  The  re- 
sult is  he  eats  too  much.  He  tumbles  from  side  to  side  of 
his  bed;  he  sees  things  in  his  dreams;  he  gets  up  in  the 
morning  with  a  bad  headache.  Many  a  good  sermon  has 
been  destroyed  because  the  preacher  did  not  control  his 
appetite.  His  imagination  would  not  work;  his  man- 
ner was  slow  and  heavy;  his  delivery  was  dull  because 
his  stomach  was  too  heavily  loaded.  I  knew  an  excellent 
preacher  several  years  ago  whose  ministry  was  greatly 
marred  by  the  habit  of  over-eating.  On  Saturdays 
when  he  had  come  from  home,  his  sermons  were  fine. 
After  preaching  he  would  go  home  with  some  good  mem- 
ber and  at  suppertime  he  would  eat  enormously.  And 
often  he  w^ould  be  too  sick  to  get  up  the  next  morning 
and  his  Sunday  appointment  would  have  to  be  'called 
off.'  All  this  happened  because  he  had  not  taken  the 
advice  of  Solomon — 'Put  a  knife  to  thy  throat  if  thou  be 
a  man  given  to  appetite.' 

Dress 

"A  preacher  should  give  some  attention  to  dress. 
There  is  something  in  the  outward  appearance  as  well 
as  in  the  inner  spirit.  I  do  not  say  that  you  ought  to 
wear  a  beaver  hat,  a  clerical  coat,  a  high-standing  col- 
lar or  low-quartered  shoes.  It  is  better  not  to  be  too 
fastidious  and  it  is  very  important  that  j^ou  be  not 
slovenly.  Indifference  as  to  appearance  in  the  pulpit 
will  sometimes  create  an  indfference  to  the  message 
to  be  delivered.  Clothes  do  not  make  the  man  but  they 
have  much  to  do  with  the  kind  of  reception  he  will  re- 
ceive from  many  people. 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  103 

Character 

"A  preacher  should  take  heed  to  his  character.  Shakes- 
peare said,  'Whoever  steals  my  purse  steals  trash,  but 
whoever  filches  my  good  name  takes  away  that  which 
cannot  enrich  him  and  leaves  me  poor  indeed.'  It  may 
be  true  that  whoever  steals  a  Baptist  preacher's  purse 
will  steal  trash,  but,  if  by  any  means,  he  loses  his  good 
name,  he  will  suffer  irreparable  loss.  A  preacher's  good 
name  should  be  like  Caesar's  wife,  'above  suspicion.' 
Preachers,  like  other  folk,  must  watch  and  pray  lest 
they  enter  into  temptation.  Many  of  them  have  fal- 
len by  the  way  greatly  to  their  own  detriment  and  the 
sorrow  of  the  cause  they  represent.  They  are  exhorted 
in  the  Scriptures  to  be  examples  to  the  flock.  Many 
eyes  are  upon  them  and  they  are  expected  to  walk  up- 
rightly. I  knew  a  pastor  many  years  ago  who  was  a 
brilliant  man.  He  was  the  idol  of  all  the  people  in  his 
section  of  the  country.  Great  multitudes  followed  him 
to  his  appointments  and  listened  with  eagerness  to  all 
his  utterances.  He  yielded  to  temptation.  It  began  to 
be  noised  about  that  he  was  not  living  as  a  preacher 
should.  Then  his  sin  came  to  light  and  he  lost  his  good 
name.  He  lost  his  place  in  the  confidence  of  the  people. 
It  was  pitiful  to  see  him  in  his  old  age,  neglected  and 
desolate  'and  none  so  poor  to  do  him  reverence.' 

"Eternal  vigilance  is  the  price  of  liberty,  and  it  is 
also  the  best  means  of  escape  for  those  who  are  called 
to  preach  the  gospel  and  live  above  reproach. 

Influence 

"Ministers  must  take  heed  to  their  influence.  The  po- 
sition of  a  preacher  should  be  one  of  commanding  in- 
fluence in  the  community  in  which  he  lives.    He  should 


104  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

share  the  confidence  and  the  good  will  of  all  the  people 
He  should  have  a  kind  word  for  the  children,  sympathy 
and  expressed  interest  in  all  the  young  people,  high  re- 
gard for  parents  and  older  people. 

Debts 

''There  are  many  things  he  must  do  if  he  would  re- 
tain the  confidence  of  all  his  hearers.  He  must  be  care- 
ful about  making  debts  that  he  knows  he  cannot  pay. 

Controversies 

"He  must  play  the  non-committal  in  many  delicate 
situations.  He  must  be  a  leader  and  not  a  driver.  He 
must  not  pride  himself  in  his  authority  but  be  a  quiet 
and  wise  adviser  of  his  brethren.  He  should  not  become 
a  partisan  and  take  sides  when  there  are  differences  of 
a  grave  sort  among  the  members  of  his  church.  Jesus 
said,  'Be  wise  as  serpents  and  harmless  as  doves.'  If 
we  could  always  observe  this  precept  we  could  find  our- 
selves growing  old  with  an  ever-increasing  influence 
among  our  people.  'Prudence  is  the  better  part  of  valor.' 
Spurgeon's  admonition  to  preachers  and  others  is  al- 
ways in  order.  'Beware  of  the  three  D's — dirt,  debt  and 
devil." 

Doctrine 

"Preachers  must  take  heed  to  the  doctrine.  Read 
Paul's  solemn  charge  to  Timothy:  "I  charge  thee  there- 
fore before  God  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  who  shall 
judge  the  quick  and  the  dead  at  his  appearing  and  his 
kingdom ;  preach  the  word ;  be  instant  in  season,  and  out 
of  season;  reprove,  rebuke,  exhort  with  all  longsuffering 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  105 

and  doctrine.  For  the  time  will  come  when  they  will 
not  endure  sound  doctrine;  but,  after  their  own  lusts, 
shall  they  heap  to  themselves  teachers  having  itching 
ears ;  and  they  shall  turn  away  their  ears  from  the  truth 
and  shall  be  turned  into  fables.  But  watch  thou  in  all 
things,  endure  aflaictions,  do  the  work  of  an  evangelist, 
make  full  proof  of  thy  ministry." 


Conviction 

"Preachers  should  be  men  of  conviction.  There  are 
some  truths  they  should  hold  with  an  ever-increasing 
tenacity.  There  are  some  doctrines  for  which  they  should 
be  willing  to  lay  down  their  own  lives  if  need  be.  Our 
business  as  ministers  of  Jesus  Christ  is  to  preach  the 
truth  as  it  is  revealed  in  the  Scriptures,  whatever  men 
may  say  or  think  on  the  subject.  We  are  not  to  be 
mere  pleasers  of  men  but  servants  of  Christ  to  whom  we 
must  render  a  final  account.  We  should  hold  and  preach 
without  wavering  the  great  doctrines  of  the  ruin  of  sin, 
the  divinity  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  inspiration  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, the  necessity  of  regeneration,  the  importance  of 
repentance  and  faith,  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  the 
second  coming  of  Christ,  the  reward  of  the  righteous  and 
the  eternal  punishment  of  the  wicked.  We  are  living 
in  a  time  when  many  sneer  at  the  great  doctrines.  In 
this  we  find  a  fulfillment  of  prophecy.  There  are  those 
in  high  places  who  seem  to  doubt  some  of  the  things 
taught  in  the  Scriptures.  If  you  do  not  believe  the 
Scripture  you  can  never  be  a  successful  minister  of  Jesus 
Christ.  If  we  do  not  believe  what  we  preach  we  need 
not  hope  to  make  others  believe  it.  A  firm  conviction 
of  the  truth  of  our  message  will  go  far  towards  impress- 


106  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

ing  our  hearers  with  the  necessity  of  giving  earnest  heed 
to  it.  And  the  truth  we  preach  out  of  earnest,  beUev- 
ing  hearts  will  not  only  save  ourselves  but  them  also, 
who  hear  us.  And  these  will  be  the  seals  to  our  min- 
istry. They  will  be  our  crown  of  rejoicing  in  that  day. 
May  we  all  so  live  and  preach  the  gospel  of  Christ  that 
we  may  hear  him  say  at  last:  'Well  done,  good  and  faith- 
ful servant,  thou  hast  been  faithful  over  a  few  things, 
I  will  make  thee  ruler  over  many  things.  Enter  thou 
into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord.' 

''The  following  lines  from  Cowper  may  be  studied 
with  profit  by  every  minister  as  a  description  of  a  true 
minister  of  Christ: 

"I  would  express  him  simple;  grave;  sincere; 
In  doctrine  circumspect;  in  language  plain, 
And  plain  in  manner;  decent;  solemn;  chaste 
And  natural  in  gesture;  and  much  impressed 
Himself,  as  conscious  of  his  awful  charge. 
And  anxious  mainly  that  the  flock  he  feeds 
May  feel  it  too;  affectionate  in  look 
And  tender  in  address,  as  well  becomes 
A  messenger  of  grace  to  guilty  men." 

To  Rev.  W.  D.  Spinx,  pastor  of  Brown  Memorial  Bap- 
tist Church,  one  of  the  younger  men  who  has  much 
the  same  conception  of  the  ministry  as  Dr.  Brown,  I 
said,  "Imagine  yourself  ten  years  younger  than  you  are, 
at  the  beginning  of  your  ministry,  knowing  Dr.  Brown  as 
well  as  you  do  now.  Imagine  that  you  had  an  opportu- 
nity to  sit  at  his  feet  and  ask  him  what  you  wanted  to 
know  about  the  work  of  a  preacher.  What  points  would 
you  ask  him  to  talk  about?  Mr,  Spinx  suggested  the 
following  points  and  I  submitted  them  to  Dr.  Brown  who 
answered  them  in  writing. 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  107 

Business  Affairs 

''What  attitude  should  a  pastor  assume  toward  the 
business  affairs  of  the  church  he  serves?  Should  he  at- 
tempt to  control  its  business  or  leave  that  to  others — say, 
the  board  of  deacons?" 

Dr.  Brown's  answer  was,  "It  must  be  remembered  al- 
ways that  a  Baptist  church  is  a  democracy.  Pastors 
and  deacons  are  not  to  play  the  role  of  bosses  to  lord  it 
over  God's  heritage.  Personally,  I  do  not  often  use  the 
phrase  'the  board  of  deacons.'  Deacons  are  servants  of 
the  church  and  advisers  of  the  pastor.  The  pastor  should 
not  attempt  to  control  the  business  of  the  church.  He 
should  be  familiar  with  it  and  advise,  if  the  church  wishes 
his  opinion.  The  deacons  are  to  serve  tables — the  table 
of  the  pastor,  the  table  of  the  poor,  the  table  of  the  Lord. 
In  seeing  after  the  support  of  the  pastor  and  incidental 
expenses  the  deacons  may  be  associated  with  other  mem- 
bers on  the  finance  committee.  There  may  be  and  often 
should  be  special  committees  appointed  by  the  church  to 
look  after  the  business  interests  of  the  church — such  as 
building  committees,  committees  to  raise  money  for  spe- 
cial objects,  etc.  All  action  by  deacons  or  committees 
is  subject  to  confirmation  by  the  church." 

Young  People^s  Societies 

"What  should  be  the  relation  of  the  pastor  to  the 
young  people's  societies  of  his  church?  Should  he  reserve 
his  strength  and  freshness  of  mind  for  his  pulpit,  or  di- 
vide it  with  the  aforementioned  societies?" 

"The  pastor  is  an  overseer.  It  does  not  mean  because 
he  is  the  overseer  that  he  must  attempt  to  do  all  the  work 
himself.  He  should  see  that  it  is  done  by  others.  He 
should  look  in  on  the  young  people's  work,  the  Sunday- 


108  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

school  work,  the  mission  work  of  the  women,  and  smile 
on  it  and  encoui*age  it  in  every  way  possible.  His  great 
business  is  to  preach  the  gospel  with  all  the  fervency  and 
power  that  he  possesses.  If  he  comes  to  the  pulpit  jaded 
after  other  forms  of  service  he  is  not  capable  of  giving 
the  people  the  best  that  is  in  him,  unless  he  has  a  sur- 
plus of  physical  energy  which  he  wishes  to  spread  out 
over  wide  surfaces.  It  is  better  to  get  ten  men  to  do  the 
work  than  to  undertake  to  do  the  work  of  ten  men." 

Pastoral  Visiting 

''In  this  day  of  multiplied  and  complex  organizations, 
if  a  pastor  attends  to  ail  matters  that  claim  his  atten- 
tion, his  pastoral  work  in  visiting  his  members  must  suf- 
fer. Is  it  more  important  to  attend  to  his  pastoral  work, 
at  the  expense  of  other  matters,  or  neglect  it  for  other 
duties?  Which  would  you  say  from  yom-  experience  is 
of  greater  importance?" 

'There  are  some  people  who  seem  to  think  that  the 
church  is  a  great  organization  with  all  sorts  of  machinery 
attached  to  make  it  efficient.  A  Baptist  church  is  a  lit- 
tle democracy — an  organism  made  up  of  persons  who 
profess  regeneration  and  are  associated  together  to  do 
the  will  of  Christ  in  teaching  his  word,  preaching  the 
gospel,  caring  for  the  poor  and  the  sick,  and  carrying 
the  good  news  of  salvation  to  every  creature.  Too  many 
organizations  hinder  rather  than  help  church  efficiency. 
They  sometimes  create  friction  and  jealousies  that  ham- 
per the  best  growth.  Simple  organizations  for  the  distri- 
bution of  power  and  service  are  useful.  The  pastor  must 
be  a  shepherd.  He  must  feed  and  lead  and  comfort  the 
flock.  He  cannot  turn  away  from  his  main  work  to  frit- 
ter away  his  strength  in  mere  matters  of  detail  that  may 
be  left  to  others  who  have  time  for  it." 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  109 

Social  Evils 

"What  attitude  should  a  pastor  take  towards  popular 
social  evils?  Should  he  attack  them,  ignore  them,  warn 
against  them,  or  not?  This  is  a  serious  question,  for 
some  people  in  every  church  consider  that  a  preacher 
should  take  the  role  of  a  reformer  which,  if  he  does,  is 
almost  certain  to  make  enemies  who  will  hinder  him  in 
his  mission  of  preaching  the  gospel." 

"Any  course  of  conduct  that  leads  to  immorality,  dis- 
honesty and  corruption  of  the  Christian  character  and 
standing  in  the  community  may  be  held  up  by  the  pas- 
tor as  a  danger  signal.  He  is  to  reprove,  rebuke  and  ex- 
hort with  all  longsuffering  and  doctrine.  He  need  not 
proclaim  himself  a  reformer  and  so  invite  opposition 
from  unexpected  forces.  He  need  only  be  a  true  minis- 
ter of  Jesus  Christ  who  has  the  welfare  of  human  souls 
on  his  heart  and  who  does  not  want  to  see  his  people  in- 
dulge in  any  practices  which  would  hurt  their  influence 
and  weaken  their  power  and  example  for  good  in  their 
churches  and  communities." 

Dr.  Brown's  calmness,  charity,  commonsense  and, 
withal,  his  love  of  younger  people  make  him  the  ideal 
elder  brother  to  young  men  in  the  ministry.  Not  many 
pastoral  problems  but  that  he  at  some  time  in  his  fifty- 
odd  years  of  active  ministry  has  had  to  face  and  solve, 
if  solution  were  possible.  Nor  need  the  young  minister 
feel  that  Dr.  Brown  will  be  uncharitable  towards  his 
mistakes  or  his  inexperience.  On  the  contrary,  he  is  the 
kind  of  man  before  whom  the  erring  and  perplexed  do 
not  mind  opening  up  their  heart  to  its  very  depths — 
knowing  that  they  can  count  on  his  interest,  his  sympa- 
thy and  his  advice  as  to  a  way  out. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  GENTLE  SHEPHERD 

"But  we  were  gentle  among  you,  even  as  a  nurse  cherisheth 
her  children;  so  being  affectionately  desirous  of  you,  we  were 
willing  to  have  imparted  unto  you,  not  the  gospel  of  God  only, 
hut  also  our  own  souls,  because  ye  were  dear  unto  us."  1  Thess. 
ii:  7,  8. 

Dr.  Brown  will  be  remembered  longest  by  those  who 
knew  him  best  as  the  gentle  shepherd  leading  and  tend- 
ing his  flock,  in  the  home,  by  the  sick-bed,  at  the  mar- 
riage altar,  at  the  grave.  He  says,  "To  be  a  good  pastor 
is  to  be  an  under-shepherd — to  feed  the  sheep  and  nur- 
ture the  lambs  of  the  flock." 


His  Visits 

The  most  characteristic  picture  of  Dr.  Brown  dur- 
ing the  years  of  his  active  ministry  would  not  be  one  of 
him  as  the  scholar  in  his  study  or  the  preacher  in  his 
pulpit  but  the  pastor  on  his  round  of  visits.  At  the  cele- 
bration in  1907,  of  Dr.  Brown's  thirtieth  anniversary  as 
pastor  in  Winston-Salem,  Bishop  Rondthaler  said  the 
following  that  has  been  repeated  so  often  already  as  to 
be  one  of  the  traditions  of  the  community,  '^He  and  I 
will  meet  each  other  sometimes  on  a  winter  day  when 
it  is  raining  or  snowing,  I  see  a  pair  of  gum  shoes  coming 
along  and  I  see  an  umbrella,  and  then  I  see  Dr.  Brown 
between  the  two,  and  probably  crossing  on  stepping- 
stones,  we  will  stand  and  talk  awhile  and  start  on  and 

[110] 


Dr  Brown  ( right i  and  Bishop  Rondthaler— one  78  and  the 
other  82  now— have  been  bosom  friends  and  co-laborers  in  the 
gospel  ministry  in  Winston-Salem  since  1877. 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  111 

I  will  see  the  gum  shoes  moving  on  and  the  umbrella  and 
Dr.  Brown  between  the  two,  on  his  way  to  comfort  some- 
body in  his  regular  course,  sometimes  dusty,  sometimes 
muddy  days." 

In  Health 

The  thing  that  I  shall  remember  with  most  affection 
about  Dr.  Brown  is  his  calls  upon  me  in  my  office  and 
later  in  my  home  when  I  first  went  to  Winston-Salem 
in  1911  to  practice  law.  Straight  from  college,  I  went 
to  that  city  and  was  a  stranger  to  everybody  in  the  city 
but  a  very  few  schoolmates.  I  joined  Brown  Memorial 
and  not  the  First  Baptist  Church.  Yet,  though  I  was  an 
unknown  stranger  and  not  a  member  of  his  church,  Dr. 
Brown  soon  found  his  way  to  my  clientless  office. 
Quietly,  without  ado — ^with  the  gum  shoes  if  it  was  even 
threatening  rain — he  came  and  welcomed  me,  said  a  few 
words  and  went  on.  And  in  later  years,  after  clients 
had  found  their  way  to  my  office,  he  continued  his  visits. 
He  knows  to  a  degree  of  perfection  I  have  never  known 
in  any  other  man  how  to  make  a  call  on  a  busy  profes- 
sional or  business  man  in  his  office  or  place  of  business 
during  work  hours.  He  comes  without  apology  for  in- 
terrupting and  leaves  w^ithout  apology  for  having  stayed 
so  long.  He  is  at  perfect  ease  during  his  call  and  makes 
you  at  ease.  He  does  not  talk  religion,  engage  in  a  dis- 
cussion of  the  topics  of  the  day — not  even  the  affairs  of 
his  church  or  denomination.  But  he  inquires  with  mani- 
festly genuine  interest  about  you,  your  work,  your  fam- 
ily, your  plans,  and  then,  in  a  perfectly  natural  way, 
says  a  word  of  encouragement.  This  done,  he  rises,  says 
good-bye  and  leaves.  A  Spanish  gentlewoman  once  told 
me  that  her  impression  of  American  men  socially  was 
that  they  could  not  terminate  a  call  gracefully.    This  is 


112  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

not  true  of  Dr.  Brown;  he  has  reduced  to  perfection  the 
art  of  making  and  ending  a  call. 

But  most  of  his  visits  during  his  active  ministry  were 
in  the  home  rather  than  the  office  or  place  of  business. 
He  did  not  wait  for  sickness  or  death  to  call  him  to  the 
home,  he  came  as  well  when  health  and  happiness 
abounded.  From  what  he  has  said  about  long  pastor- 
ates, we  know  how  highly  he  places  visitation  among 
pastoral  duties.  On  another  occasion,  speaking  of  the 
relations  between  pastor  and  people,  he  had  still  more  to 
say  about  visits  that  is  pertinent  at  this  point. 

'The  world  is  not  old  enough  yet  to  have  outgrown  the 
need  of  pastoral  visitation.  No  social  gatherings  or  class 
reception  or  circular  letters  or  formal  visits  made  by 
paid  secretaries  or  workers  can  take  the  place  of  the 
friendly  call,  the  warm  tender  handshake,  and  the  quiet, 
home-like  conversation  of  the  pastor,  himself,  around 
the  family  fireside.  It  is  still  true  that  the  home-going 
pastor  makes  the  church-going  congregation.  'It 
is  one  thing  to  attract  a  gaping  crowd  to  witness  a  dis- 
play of  pulpit  fireworks;  it  is  quite  another  thing  to 
attract  and  to  hold  attentive  listeners  to  the  gospel  of 
life.'  And  this  cannot  be  done  without  the  personal 
touch." 

In  Sickness 

"Oi  course,"  Dr.  Brown  continues,  "he  must  make  a 
point  to  visit  the  sick  members  in  his  church  and  con- 
gregation. There  are  times  when  he  may  not  know  of 
the  sickness,  then  he  should  be  notified  by  the  family  or 
other  members  of  the  church.  He  should  not  be  censured 
for  neglecting  his  people  when  he  does  not  know  of  their 
need  of  his  services.  It  may  require  an  expenditure  of 
nervous  energy  to  face  delicate  situations  in  the  sick- 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  113 

rooms,  but  no  conscientious  pastor  should  hesitate  to  do 
his  whole  duty  in  any  particular  case  whatsoever  of  suf- 
fering and  inconvenience  it  may  require.  He  need  not 
think  it  necessary  to  preach  a  sermon  by  the  sickbed  or 
administer  reproofs  to  those  who  have  neglected  duties. 
His  manner  should  be  gentle  and  tender,  and  his  words 
full  of  interest  and  affection  for  those  in  sickness  or  dis- 
tress. 'Bring  into  their  rooms  the  sunshine  of  a  cheerful 
countenance  and  a  morsel  of  fresh  manna  from  heaven 
that  shall  have  the  taste  of  honey.'  He  should  know 
how  to  speak  a  word  in  season  for  them  that  are  weary. 
The  visit  should  not  be  'too  long  drawn  out.'  There  is 
a  time  to  leave  as  well  as  to  come.  Sometimes  it  may  be 
best  not  to  go  in  and  see  the  sick.  You  have  no  idea 
how  the  sight  of  a  face  may  agitate  the  sufferer  and  rob 
him  of  the  little  life  that  is  fluttering  in  his  feeble  frame. 
Just  a  call  or  a  friendly  inquiry  after  the  'dear  ones' 
may  be  all  that  is  best  to  be  done.  When  the  sickroom 
is  crowded  by  well-meaning  but  needless  intruders,  it 
m.ay  be  well  for  the  pastor  to  put  them  all  forth  as  the 
Master  did  from  that  chamber  in  which  the  daughter 
of  Jairus  was  in  the  death  slumber.  For  lack  of  sense 
and  sensibility  and  tact  a  pastor  may  sometimes  do  al- 
most as  much  harm  as  good  by  his  visitation  of  the  sick. 
The  prayer  in  the  sickroom  should  be  brief  and  full  of 
faith  in  God  and  affection  for  the  suffering  ones." 

At  Death 

Bishop  Rondthaler  says  that  in  funerals  Dr.  Brown  is 
the  most  welcome  man  the  community  has  ever  had. 
His  great  desire  is  to  have  everybody  helped.  He  finds 
out  about  the  members  of  the  bereaved  family  and  then 
prays  for  them  in  a  delicate  and  suitable  way.    His  ser- 


114  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

vice  in  funerals  is  not  the  remarks  he  makes,  appropriate 
though  they  are,  but  in  the  fact  that  in  his  prayer  he 
forgets  nobody. 

Of  the  pastor's  duty  at  the  time  of  death,  Dr.  Brown 
says,  'Terhaps  one  of  the  most  delicate  duties  con- 
nected with  the  pastoral  office  is  the  ministry  to  families 
over  whose  hearthstones  have  fallen  the  shadow  of  death 
and  bereavement.  The  funeral  hour  is  forever  sacred 
in  the  annals  of  a  family's  history.  It  is  the  time  to 
have  the  heart  filled  with  sympathy  like  that  which 
characterized  Jesus  when  he  stood  beside  the  sorrowing 
sisters  at  the  grave  of  their  brother.  A  cold,  formal,  me- 
chanical service  at  such  an  hour  is  out  of  harmony  with 
the  eternal  fitness  of  things.  A  studied  oration  is  not 
necessary;  a  long  mournful  sermon  is  rarely  ever  appro- 
priate. A  few  selections  of  Scripture,  sympathetically 
and  impressively  read,  a  simple  and  tender  prayer  of- 
fered, and  such  allusions  to  family  history  as  may  be 
necessary  may  well  constitute  the  part  to  be  taken  by 
the  pastor  at  the  funeral  hour.  Some  excellent  pastors 
never  make  any  preparations  for  a  funeral  but  let  the 
occasion  suggest  what  needs  to  be  said  and  done. 

'^I  have  found  it  very  helpful  to  those  who  are  be- 
reaved to  make  them  a  visit  and  offer  a  prayer  in  their 
homes  a  few  days  after  they  have  laid  their  loved  ones 
away.  It  is  a  time  to  do  them  good,  for  their  hearts  are 
open  and  responsive  to  any  service  that  may  be  rendered 
for  their  benefit.  And  among  the  things  they  will  re- 
member longest  and  appreciate  the  most  will  be  the  pas- 
tor's visit  and  prayer  in  the  home  after  the  family  circle 
has  been  broken." 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  115 

His  Universal  Touch 

One  of  the  most  noteworthy  features  of  Dr.  Brown's 
pastorate  was  his  universal  touch — his  acquaintance  with, 
friendship  for,  and  intimacy  with  people  of  all  kinds  in 
every  walk  of  life.  None  was  too  bad  or  too  good,  too 
ignorant  or  too  learned,  too  poor  or  too  rich,  for  Dr. 
Brown  to  know,  love  and  serve  him. 

When  a  few  years  ago  one  of  the  leading  business  men 
of  Winston-Salem  realized  for  the  first  time  on  his  death- 
bed his  need  of  a  Saviour,  it  was  Dr.  Brown  that  he  sent 
for  to  come  and  talk  to  him  about  his  soul's  salvation. 
Dr.  Brown  went  and  led  him  to  Christ  and  he  died  happy 
in  the  faith,  though  he  joined  in  his  last  hours — and  Dr. 
Brown  knew  he  would  join,  if  he  joined  any — a  church 
other  than  the  Baptist.  It  did  not  make  a  particle  of 
difference  with  the  sick  man  or  with  Dr.  Brown  that  the 
former  was  not  of  a  Baptist  family  and  the  latter  the 
pastor  of  a  Baptist  church. 

One  of  the  deacons  in  Dr.  Brown's  church  tells  an  ex- 
perience he  had  with  Dr.  Brown  that  illustrates  further 
the  universality  of  his  touch.  He  and  Dr.  Brown  were 
walking  along  the  street  one  day  when  he  saw  approach- 
ing one  of  the  notoriously  bad  women  of  the  city.  She 
was  so  bad  that  the  deacon  said  he  felt  like  crossing  the 
street  so  as  not  to  go  near  her.  But  he  and  Dr.  Brown 
walked  on.  As  they  were  about  to  pass  the  woman.  Dr. 
Brown  stopped,  shook  hands  with  the  woman,  called  her 
sister,  and  kindly  inquired  how  she  was.  Wasn't  that 
Christlike?    What  a  rebuke  to  the  deacon! 

On  another  occasion  at  night  the  telephone  rang  in 
Dr.  Brown's  home  and  he  was  asked  to  go  at  once  to  a 
house  at  a  certain  street  number.  Without  question.  Dr. 
Brown  took  his  hat — and  his  gum  shoes,  and  umbrella, 


116  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

no  doubt — and  started  oft  to  look  for  the  number.  He 
found  it  at  last — on  a  back  street,  the  house  of  a  colored 
family.  He  found,  when  he  went  in  and  inquired,  that  a 
member  of  the  family  was  sick  and  that  the  call  had 
been  intended  for  a  colored  physician.  Dr.  Brown.  But 
there  was  no  incongruity  whatever  in  the  white  Dr. 
Brown — the  physician  to  sick  souls — being  in  an  humble 
colored  home  in  the  night  time. 

A  man  who  has  worked  much  among  the  poor  and 
needy  of  Winston-Salem  says,  ''Ever  since  I  have  been 
doing  my  little  for  the  poor  of  the  city  I  have  never  yet 
failed  to  find  that  Dr.  Brown  has  preceded  me  or  meet 
him  on  the  way  as  I  leave.  He  seems  to  have  been  every- 
where a  ray  of  sunshine  is  needed." 

Nor  does  Dr.  Brown  confine  his  pastoral  services  to 
members  of  his  own  church  or  even  his  own  denomina- 
tion. One  time  a  new  Methodist  family  had  moved  to 
Winston-Salem.     The  pastor  of  the  leading  Methodist 

church  of  the  city  remarked,  "I  want  to  go  see 

who  has  been  here  a  week,  but  I'll  bet  Dr.  Brown  has 
been  there  before  me."  And,  to  be  sure,  he  had.  Yet 
the  pastors  of  other  churches  never  resented  Dr.  Brown's 
calling  upon  their  members.  There  was  never  a  hint  of 
proseh^ting  in  his  calls.  Upon  this  point  Bishop  Rond- 
thaler  says,  "Dr.  Brown  is  as  loyal  a  Baptist  as  I  try  to 
be  a  Moravian.  Our  differences  do  not  offend  each  other. 
We  have  lots  of  other  things  to  discuss.  We  do  not  dis- 
cuss our  points  of  difference.  That  is  a  part  of  the  secret 
of  his  influence  in  the  entire  community.  Nobody  ever 
questions  his  being  a  good  Baptist.  But  he  does  not  el- 
bow sharply  into  anybody  else's  views." 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  117 

Welcome  Everywhere 

There  is  not  an  office  or  place  of  business  or  home  in 
all  the  city — whether  of  white  or  black,  Jew  or  Gentile, 
Catholic  or  Protestant,  rich  or  poor,  whether  in  sickness, 
in  health,  in  joy,  in  sorrow — in  which  Dr.  Brown  will 
not  find  a  warm  welcome.  Why  is  it?  The  answer  to 
this  throws  light  on  why  he  is  the  pastor  beloved. 

Dr.  Brown  is  welcome  everywhere,  in  the  first  place, 
because  of  his  genuine  humility.  He  has  followed 
Christ  with  almost  unconscious  faithfulness.  He  is  the 
friend  of  all  people.  They  instinctively  feel  it.  A  proud 
man  cannot  get  close  to  many  people.  Dr.  Brown  is 
not  mindful  of  high  things,  nor  does  he  condescend  to 
the  lowly.  Nor  is  his  broad  human  interest  a  studied 
effort.  Whether  in  the  drawing-room  or  cottage,  whether 
among  the  poor  or  rich,  he  is  sincerely  one  of  them.  As 
Bishop  Rondthaler  says,  ''Through  the  tenements  of 
Salem  we  have  met  each  other  through  the  years — going 
up  and  down  Marshall  Street,  visiting  the  people  from 
Davidson  and  Yadkin  and  Stokes.  He  fitted  himself 
humbly  into  their  lives.  He  was  not  company  but  just 
one  of  them." 

Dr.  Brown  is  welcome  everywhere  also  because  of  his 
genuine  sympathy.  It  is  not  of  a  general  character  but 
takes  individual  form  and  shape.  He  is  interested  in 
men  as  individuals,  not  men  in  the  mass.  In  this  he 
feels  that  he  is  following  the  example  of  his  Master.  Here 
is  what  he  says  about  Christ's  love  for  the  individual. 

''No  person  can  read  the  New  Testament  and  not  be 
impressed  with  the  importance  attached  to  the  individ- 
ual in  the  teaching  of  Christ  in  the  Gospels  and  epistles. 
When  he  discussed  the  great  subject  of  regeneration  it 
was  with  Nicodemus,  a  ruler  of  the  Jews,  and  in  the 


118  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

stillness  and  quietness  of  the  night  time.  The  appeal  of 
regeneration  is  personal  and  sympathetic.  When  he 
wanted  to  impress  the  doctrine  of  the  new  life  involving 
a  change  of  character  and  conduct,  he  addressed  himself 
to  a  lone  woman  by  the  well  of  Jacob.  And  so  pro- 
foundly was  she  moved  by  this  teaching  that  she  left  her 
water-pot  at  the  well  and  went  into  the  city  to  tell  other 
individuals  of  their  need  and  opportunity.  When  he 
wanted  someone  to  state  the  great  principles  of  Chris- 
tianity to  coming  generations  and  become  a  flaming 
evangel  to  cities  and  countries  he  halted  Saul  of  Tarsus 
in  the  Damascus  Road  and  revolutionized  all  his  plans 
and  purposes  in  life. 

"He  did  not  lose  sight  of  individuals  in  great  surging 
crowds.  To  him  the  multitude  was  only  an  aggrega- 
tion of  individuals.  He  saw  everyone  bearing  his  own 
burden  of  sorrow  and  sin,  having  his  own  outlook  on  life, 
and  his  own  difficulties  to  adjust,  and  his  own  problems 
to  solve.  He  passed  Matthew  at  the  receipt  of  custom, 
saw  in  him  great  possibilities  of  usefulness,  and  said  to 
him,  Tollow  me.'  And  he  arose  and  followed.  He  heard 
the  piteous  wail  of  blind  Bartimeus  as  the  multitude 
passed  with  eager  haste  along.  He  saw  him  and  diag- 
nosed his  case,  and  made  him  the  recipient  of  his  heal- 
ing pov/er. 

"When  Zaccheus  was  in  the  sycamore  tree  Jesus  saw 
him  and  called  by  name  and  said,  'Zaccheus,  come  down; 
for  I  must  this  day  abide  in  thy  house.'  And  through 
that  abiding  power  he  became  willing  to  bestow  the  half 
of  his  goods  to  feed  the  poor  and  make  a  fourfold  resti- 
tution to  any  he  had  wronged. 

"He  knows  each  by  name.  He  does  not  mistake  Peter 
for  John.  He  knows  our  every  weakness  and  interprets 
our  groans.    He  has  fellowship  in  all  our  gladness.    The 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  119 

kingdom  of  heaven  standeth  sure  having  this  seal,  'The 
Lord  knoweth  them  that  are  his.'  Our  names  are  writ- 
ten on  his  hand.  He  understands  our  thoughts  afar  off. 
He  knew  Martha's  temperament  and  said  to  her  one  day, 
'Martha,  Martha,  thou  art  careful  and  troubled  about 
many  things.'  Like  many  of  us,  she  was  wearing  her 
life  away  with  many  little  worries  that  need  not  have 
wasted  her  energies. 

"He  visited  the  lonely  dwellings  of  men  and  moved 
amid  their  common  haunts  and  sympathetically  knew 
the  needs  of  each  individual  heart.  'He  knows,  he  knows, 
and  tempers  every  wind  that  blows.'  He  is  the  great 
Shepherd  and  knows  his  sheep  and  leads  them  out  into 
the  green  pastures  and  down  by  the  still  waters.  If  we 
are  his,  he  will  know  us  on  the  other  side  of  the  river 
and  lead  us  into  the  mansions  aforetime  prepared  for 
us." 

What  a  self-revelation  of  the  gentle  shepherd! 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  FAITHFUL  WITNESS 

"For  we  preach  not  ourselves,  hut  Christ  Jesus  the  Lord;  and 
ourselves  your  servants  for  Jesus'  sake.  For  God,  who  com- 
manded the  light  to  shine  out  of  darkness,  hath  shined  in  our 
hearts,  to  give  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God  in 
the  face  of  Jesus  Christ.  But  we  have  this  treasure  in  earthen 
vessels;  that  the  excellency  of  the  power  may  be  of  God,  and 
not  of  us."   11  Corinthians  iv:  5-7. 

Dr.  Brown's  greatest  contribution  to  his  day  and  gen- 
eration and  to  posterity  is  his  faithful  testimony  of 
Christ.  He  is  and  has  been  a  witness  for  him  in  Win- 
ston-Salem, throughout  the  Pilot  Mountain  Association, 
and  unto  the  ends  of  the  State.  He  has  testified  for 
Christ  not  only  with  his  words  but,  even  better,  with  his 
life. 

Testimony  of  His  Words 

In  one  of  his  articles  in  The  Biblical  Recorder  Dr. 
Brown  quotes  with  hearty  approval  the  following  testi- 
mony of  an  unknown  author: 

''My  own  theology  begins  and  ends  with  the  person 
and  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ.  There  is  a  passage  in  the 
New  Testament  which  I  would  like  to  turn  around.  'Ye 
believe  in  God,  believe  also  in  me.'  I  prefer  to  say,  'I 
believe  in  you,  therefore  I  believe  in  God.'  Without 
Christ  I  should  believe  that  there  was  some  Force,  some 
ultimate  Reality,  but  I  should  not  worship  it,  pray  to 
it,  nor  give  it  my  vote.  To  me  Jesus  Christ  is  the  di- 
vine Manifestation.     He  is  the  only  man  I  ever  heard 

[120] 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  121 

of  who  looks  like  God,  who  talks  like  God,  and  who  acts 
like  God.  If  he  is  not  divine,  then  my  hopes  are  all  dust 
and  my  faith  dead.  He  is  my  Lord  and  my  God.  I 
worship  him  and  follow  him  in  the  dark,  as  best  I  may. 
To  me  he  is  the  most  interesting,  the  m.ost  valiant,  the  . 
most  wise,  the  most  charming,  the  most  independent  per- 
son who  ever  walked  the  earth.  I  had  rather  see  him,  be 
with  him,  and  hear  him  talk  than  to  see  Shakespeare, 
Goethe  or  Beethoven.  No  man  ever  spoke  with  such 
tmth,  sincerity  and  grace.  Everything  he  said  about 
human  life  is  true  and  can  be  verified.  Therefore,  I  be- 
lieve that  what  he  said  about  the  future  life,  which  we 
cannot  know  and  which  cannot  be  verified,  is  also  true. 
I  am  100  per  cent  Christian.  I  find  it  easy  to  believe  in 
his  miracles.  If  he  did  not  live  after  death,  then  I  do 
not  want  to." 

Dr.  Brown  follows  this  with  his  own  testimony  of 
Christ.  "He  is  God  manifest  in  the  flesh.  He  is  the 
chiefest  among  ten  thousand  and  the  one  altogether 
lovely.  He  is  to  me  Prophet,  Priest  and  King,  Saviour, 
Lord,  Companion,  and  Advocate.  His  words  are  food 
on  which  I  feed— sweeter  than  the  honey  in  the  honey- 
comb. His  presence  is  my  inspiration.  His  command- 
ments, my  last  court  of  appeal.  His  companionship  is 
my  choice  possession.  His  example,  my  hope  of  imita- 
tion. His  life,  my  highest  ideal  "of  living.  His  death 
means  deliverance  from  sin  and  salvation  for  all  who 
will,  through  faith,  accept  the  merits  of  his  atonement. 
His  resurrection  means  that  we  shall  live  together  in  him. 
He  said,  'Because  I  live  ye  shall  live  also.'  It  means  our 
triumph  over  the  gates  of  hell  and  our  eternal  reign  with 
him.  Our  tongues  will  sing  his  praises  through  all  the 
cycles. 


122  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 


"Jesus,  I  love  thy  charming  name! 
Tis  music  to  mine  ear. 
Fain  would  I  sound  it  out  so  loud 
That  earth  and  heaven  might  hear." 


Testimony  of  His  Life 

Bishop  Rondthaler  has  likened  the  life  of  Dr.  Brown 
to  an  electric  light  bulb  through  which  has  shone  forth 
the  light  of  Christ  that  is  in  his  heart.  He  says,  "Dr. 
Brown  became  a  Christian  early  in  life.  He  has  lived, 
taught  and  worked  as  a  Christian.  The  light  of  Jesus 
has  shone  out  in  the  man.  The  bulb,  in  the  heart  of 
which  is  this  electric  power,  has  been  kept  clear  and  well 
wiped  of  dust.  The  light  of  Jesus  has  been  permitted  to 
shin  out  with  unusual  brightness — not  dimmed  in  its 
transit.  These  are  some  of  the  rays  of  light — his  great 
humility,  his  sanctified  good  sense,  his  sympathy  for  the 
individual,  his  loyalty  to  his  church. 

This  is  the  perfect  tribute  to  the  testimony  of  his  lif e— 
his  life  a  clear  glass  through  which  the  spirit  of  Christ 
has  shown  undimmed. 


The  Testimony  of  His  Outlook 

Already  I  have  quoted  several  references  by  Dr. 
Brown  showing  the  calmness  and  even  the  joy  with  which 
he  anticipates  the  sound  of  the  boatman's  oar  coming  to 
take  him  across  the  bar  to  meet  his  Pilot  face  to  face. 
Could  any  testimony  of  the  reality  of  Christianity  be 
more  convincing  than  the  calm  assurance  of  the  future 
it  gives  men  like  Dr.  Brown  who  have  experienced  a  life- 
time of  faith?  See  how  Lyman  Abbott,  a  man  with 
very  much  the  same  kind  of  spirit  and  faith  as  Dr.  Brown 
though  he  moved  in  a  different  sphere,  anticipated  death : 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  123 

"And  I  look  forward  to  the  Great  Adventure,  which  now 
cannot  be  far  off,  with  awe,  but  not  with  apprehension. 
I  enjoy  my  work,  my  home,  my  friends,  my  life.  I  shall 
be  sorry  to  part  with  them.  But  always  I  stand  in  the 
bow  looking  forward  with  hopeful  anticipation  to  the 
life  before  me.  When  the  time  comes  for  my  embarka- 
tion, and  the  ropes  are  cast  off,  and  I  put  out  to  sea,  I 
think  I  shall  still  be  standing  in  the  bow  and  still  look- 
ing forward  with  eager  curiosity  and  glad  hopefulness  to 
the  new  world  to  which  the  unknown  voyage  will  bring 
me." 

Let  me  quote  a  few  more  references  Dr.  Brown  has 
made  to  his  outlook  upon  the  life  ahead. 

"The  way  grows  brighter  as  the  days  go  on.  We  sit 
together  in  heavenly  places.  Springs  of  joy  refresh  our 
weary  spirits,  as  we  get  nearer  the  end  of  the  pilgrim- 
age. The  time  of  waiting  is  not  long.  'Those  loved  long 
since  and  lost  awhile'  are  nearer  than  we  think  to  meet 
us  and  greet  us  as  we  enter  through  the  gates  into  the 
city.  The  pilgrimage  is  ended,  the  weariness  of  earth  is 
past,  and  we  are  home  at  last." 

"The  prospect  grows  more  glorious  as  we  think  about 
it.  'Sweet  fields  arrayed  in  living  green'  and  rivers  of 
delight  greet  our  enraptured  vision  while  we  wait  for 
the  summons  to  'come  up  higher'.  Some  one  has  said 
that  we  will  not  have  been  in  heaven  one-half  hour  be- 
fore we  will  have  forgotten  all  the  troubles  we  ever  had 
on  the  earth.  The  prospect  is  far  more  glorious  than  the 
retrospect  and  we  feel  like  saying,  'Come  Lord  Jesus, 
and  come  quickly.' 

"So  tired  now!  and  facing  an  unfinished  task  we  think 
of  heaven  as  a  place  of  restr— not  a  cessation  of  effort, 
but  absence  of  weariness.  So  ignorant  now  and  here  of 
so  many  things  we  would  like  to  know,  we  think  of 


124  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

heaven  as  a  place  we  shall  know  even  as  we  are  known. 
So  lonely  here  since  loved  ones  are  gone !  We  walk  softly 
under  the  light  of  the  stars  and  wonder  if  in  that  far 
away  strand  in  the  homeland  of  the  blest  we  shall  meet 
and  greet  them  as  in  the  days  of  yore. 

"  'Heaven  grows  more  real  day  by  day, 
Not  strange  and  cold  but  very  dear — 

The  glad  homeland  not  far  away 
Where  none  are  sick  or  poor  or  lone 
The  place  where  we  shall  find  our  own 

And  as  we  think  of  all  we  knew 
Who  there  have  met  to  part  no  more, 

Our  longing  hearts  desire  home,  too, 
With  all  the  strife  and  trouble  o'er.' " 


The  Great  Commandment 

Why  is  Dr.  Brown  the  pastor  beloved?  Recall  the 
course  we  have  taken  together — the  simple  and  unevent- 
ful life  measured  in  temis  of  human  history;  the  wise 
but  unspectacular  leadership  in  his  church,  his  city,  his 
State;  the  effective  preacher,  sticking  to  the  simple  gos- 
pel, drawing  men  to  him  who  was  lifted  up;  the  elder 
brother  teaching,  warning,  counselling,  encouraging,  in- 
spiring the  younger  brethren  in  the  ministry  of  the  gos- 
pel ;  the  gentle  shepherd,  knowing  his  sheep  by  name  and 
leading  them — without  regard  to  color,  creed,  or  condi- 
tion— into  the  more  abundant  life  of  love  and  service; 
the  faithful  witness  testifying  for  Christ  by  his  words, 
his  life,  and  his  faith  in  the  future. 

Is  he  not  the  pastor  beloved  because  throughout  his 
long  span  of  years  he  has  obeyed  with  uncommon  fidel- 
ity the  Great  Commandments?  '^Thou  shalt  love  the 
Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul, 
and  with  all  thy  mind.  This  is  the  first  and  great  com- 
mandment.   And  the  second  is  like  unto  it,  Thou  shalt 


THE  PASTOR  BELOVED  125 

love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.     On  these  two  command- 
ments hang  all  the  law  and  the  prophets." 

Dr.  Brown  loves  his  fellowman  because  he  loves  God, 
the  Father  of  us  all.  His  fellowmen  love  him  because 
he  first  loved  them.  This,  then,  is  the  secret  of  the 
life  of  the  pastor  beloved — his  love  of  God  and  man  ex- 
pressing itself  in  cheerful  service. 


The  Legacy  of  Peace 

Some  years  ago,  while  he  was  still  active  in  the  pas- 
torate Dr.  Brown  sent  around  to  his  friends  and  to  mem- 
bers of  his  congregation  at  Christmas  time  a  prose  poem 
of  his  own  authorship  entitled  "The  Legacy  of  Peace." 
In  closing  this  appreciation  of  the  pastor  beloved,  I  can- 
not do  bettor  than  send  out  once  more  his  legacy  of  peace 
to  his  host  of  friends  and  brethren  in  the  Christian  faith 
throughout  the  world. 

"Jesus  said,  'Peace  I  leave  with  you!' 

"What  a  priceless  legacy  he  has  left  us! 

"Peace  for  the  mind,  peace  for  the  heart,  peace  for 
the  conscience. 

"Peace  like  the  sweet  music  throughout  the  morning 
hours,  peace  at  noon  like  the  soft  shadows  resting  on 
the  green  grass,  peace  at  sunset  like  the  infant's  sleep  on 
the  patient  mother's  breast. 

"Peace  like  the  calm  in  the  deep  bosom  of  the  ocean 
when  storms  break  on  the  surface. 

"Peace  that  cannot  be  weighed  in  balances  or  meas- 
ured in  vessels,  or  counted  in  numerals,  peace  that  lights 
up  the  countenance,  reigns  like  a  queen  in  the  soul,  and 
makes  melodious  our  poor  human  speech. 

"Peace  that  grows  beautiful-  and  abundant  like  the 
shining  river,  the  deep,  fathomless  peace  of  God! 


126  THE  PASTOR  BELOVED 

''Dear  Saviour  let  us  realize  this  peace  when  the  shad- 
ows grow  long  and  the  burdens  seem  heavy  to  weary, 
failing  feet! 

''  'When  peace  like  a  river  attendeth  my  way, 
When  sorrows  like  sea  billows  roll! 
Whatever  my  lot,  thou  hast  taught  me  to  say 
It  is  well,  it  is  well,  with  my  soul'." 


